The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR) is planning to take the federal government to court as the amnesty for firearms prohibited by the Liberal government’s May 2020 order-in-council is set to expire at the end of October.
Without an extension, scores of legally-purchased firearms will become illegal overnight.
The CCFR is expected to file an injunction on Friday.
CCFR CEO Rod Giltaca the government is creating unnecessary fear and uncertainty for gun owners.
“They’re waiting,” Giltaca told True North’s Andrew Lawton. “Every time this amnesty deadline rolls around the government waits until the last couple of days and it stresses a lot of gun owners…. For the everyday gun owner, especially elderly people, they start to get very nervous and some people may even turn in their guns because they’re worried they’re going to become criminals.”
These concerns were echoed by CCFR spokesperson Tracey Wilson.
The firearm advocacy group fears that many Canadian gun owners could have their gun collections seized after October 30, when the amnesty expires.
“The criminality of hundreds of thousands of Canadians, through no fault of their own, is at risk here,” Wilson told the National Post.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for the government to play politics and leave everyone hanging in the breeze, trying to figure out if they’re exposed to a 10-year prison sentence.”
On May 1, 2020, former Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino introduced an order-in-council that reclassified a large cohort of commonly owned firearms as prohibited. Some of these guns include variants of the AR-15 long rifle, the Ruger Mini-14, M14, and SIG’s MCX and MPX group of firearms.
The reclassification also prohibited any firearm capable of muzzle energies that exceeded 10,000 joules.
The order-in-council barred owners of these guns from using, selling or transferring them, meaning they’ve been in limbo for over three years awaiting establishment of the government’s promised “buyback.”
The mandated grace period will expire on Oct. 30, 2023 and has already been extended once.
In April, Mendicino introduced what would be the initial phase of a government program to confiscate the affected firearms. It was to be implemented some time this year, however no specific details have been presented thus far.
Details from the order-in-council are coming, said Jean-Sébastien Comeau, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc’s office.
“They’ve got a lot of questions, and lot of fears,” said Wilson, referring to Canada’s gun owning community.
“Regardless how you feel about these types of guns, there’s real people attached to the other end of this who are terrified. They’re terrified of getting in trouble,” she said.
If nothing is done to remedy the situation before the deadline, many gun owners in Canada will find themselves in direct violation of federal firearms laws and could face serious fines and even jail time.
“We answer to tens of thousands of members, we have old guys who’ve owned these guns for decades without issue wondering what’s going to happen,” said Wilson.
“What do I do? Do I turn my guns in? Where do I go? I don’t want to be criminalized. There’s a panic within the community, because people don’t understand the politics of it.”
In 2020, several challenges were filed in federal court claiming that the Firearms Act has been violated by the government after the Liberals outlawed over 1,500 firearms through regulatory decree instead of through a legislative process. The challenges hope to have the order-in-council deemed unconstitutional.
Several provinces have said they will take measures to prevent the order-in-council and protect the firearms rights for gun owners in their provinces.
