Joe Biden
Joe Biden (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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Joe Biden
Joe Biden (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

By Larry Keane

Canada’s gun confiscation plan is getting a chilly reception from America’s northern neighbors. Even the guy Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put in charge of confiscating more than 2 million firearms from his fellow Canadians is at a loss to explain how it will be done.

Apparent President-elect Joe Biden might want to take notes. Canada’s gun confiscation horse hasn’t even left the barn and it’s tripping all over itself. No one knows how much it will cost and no one knows who will confiscate guns from law-abiding Canadians. And Canadians are not their normally pleasant selves over these developments.

Canada prime minister trudeau
Prime Minister Zoolander didn’t really think through his gun confiscation scheme. (Bigstock)

The foresight of James Madison to ensure this God-given right was included in the Bill of Rights can’t be overstated. Neither can one overstate the folly of Biden thinking he can confiscate 20 million firearms from law-abiding Americans whose right to keep and bear those firearms is Constitutionally protected.

Canadian gun confiscation is starting out as an abysmal failure and only promises to get worse from here. Thinking it would be any easier, cheaper or politically expedient to do this in the United States is absurd. Suggesting it as a national policy is an insult to the Constitution Biden and Kamala Harris will swear (again) to protect if sworn in next month.

Not the Mounties

Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair said it would be too expensive and inefficient for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to run the effort to round-up the more than 1,500 models of firearms covered by Prime Minister Trudeau’s executive action announced without comment, debate or a vote by the Canadian Parliament. Conservative Member of Parliament Glen Motz asked Minister Blair how the confiscation would occur and what the associated costs would be. Minister Blair scoffed at the police performing the unpopular task, but sidestepped giving a price tag.

MP Motz is still chiding him for an answer. “$2 billion? $5 billion? How much will the firearm confiscation plan cost?” Motz wrote in a tweet. “@BillBlair won’t say, probably cause he has no idea!”

The real reason Minister Blair won’t be asking for Canada’s Mounties to take the task is because they’re balking that it will actually do anything to reduce crime.

The national police union representing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the National Police Federation, doesn’t support confiscation. Instead, they urge the Canadian Parliament to adopt “… a combination of better legislation, better funding, and evidence-based solutions that we believe are necessary…” The police union noted that the uptick in criminal misuse of firearms in Canada is connected to gang activity and the guns being used illegally by those criminals are already banned in Canada.

Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation, said they would rather enforce laws that are evidence-based, that address the root causes of the criminal activity instead of targeting law-abiding gun owners.

The Mounties Aren’t Alone

It’s not just the RCMP that’s disinterested in taking on the Herculean task of rounding up guns from their fellow citizens. Prime Minister Trudeau’s Liberal Party, which holds power, failed to secure a private-sector contractor to design the confiscation scheme – or “buyback” as the Liberal Party labels it. Canada’s procurement office issued two separate requests for proposals (RFPs) to run the confiscation without a nibble from an interested bidder. The Canadian government even tried name-shaming potential bidders, accounting firms Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP and Ernst & Young LLP didn’t’ bite.

The contract offer, which closed out in early November, was reportedly worth $78 million.

we will not comply
Imagine how much harder confiscation would be below the 49th parallel. (Courtesy Jeff Hulbert)

Gun control advocates are shouting that delays in implementing the confiscation are risking the whole gun control plan. Heidi Rathjen, coordinator of the group PolySeSouvient, wants the ban implemented now, but wants to expand it. Her group now wants to limit firearm magazines to five rounds, grant police easier access to commercial firearm sales data, spend money to boost government monitoring of gun license applicants and licensed owners and end the manufacture and importation of handguns into Canada.

PolySeSouvient is also calling for the gun ban list to be evergreen.” That means the list isn’t static, but grows without intentional addition. One news outlet compared it to when smartphones automatically update overnight without the users’ action. The list would be the same way, except this would be law-abiding gun owners waking up as unwitting felons because the law changed overnight without public notice, debate, or input.

A court challenge to the Canadian gun confiscation plan is pending with a decision expected in January on whether the scheme can go forward or if it should be temporarily suspended while wider court actions proceed.

This is all too chilling for Canadian gun owners. It’s also a cautionary tale for American gun owners to not take their Second Amendment rights for granted. The magnitude of firearm ownership in America dwarfs that of Canada. The costs and bureaucracy of confiscation here would dwarf the billions Canada is expected to pay.

The actions that candidate Biden proposed aren’t really any different than what Canada is witnessing now. Here, though, it’s unconstitutional.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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74 COMMENTS

  1. I may have mentioned this before, but I WILL NOT COMPLY with any confiscation or buyback. I will defend my rights.

    • If you want to know what gun confiscation would look like in the USA, it would look something like Somalia x Rwanda x Bosnia. This country would not exist, and half the population would be dead. Perhaps that is what Biden’s overlords want.

      • That is what they all want. Easier to rebuild in “safe” zones and start new monopolies. Just look at Amazon in all this, their “pantry” is up 3,000%! No, that is not a typo. It’s the food delivery stuff they started pushing just before all this pandemic took place. It’s all been right in front of us for so long, we just failed to do anything about it, and now, we HAVE to fight. Come January, if Trump gives up – that’s right, gives up – we lose. Regardless of your support for republicans and democrats, “freedom” takes a fucken walk. That piece of paper that makes people think they are free burns. Either way, it’s going to be ugly and long overdue.

    • Joe & the Hoe have no clue the can of woop@zz they would open should they be the Marxist Leftards to open that can.

  2. The Constitution means nothing to Sleepy Joe and his leftist cronies. We all know they plan to abolish our system of government.

    • With the power completely in the hands of one party, the communist party, they will just ignore the constitution. This would cause a permanent split in the country leading to actual boundries between the free states and the communist states. The idiots supporting this communist take over will soon realize what the real meaning of ” level playing field ” really means. Everyone but the ruling class will be poor and hungry.

  3. The power hungry socialists, communists, and wannabe dictator types always ignore the past histories and failures and say “it will work when I implement this!” They think when USSR, Venezuela, North Korea etc had failed as states it was just because they weren’t the ones doing it.

    So no, they don’t see the failures in Canada, even as Australia and New Zealand as proof gun control won’t work here. They still need the power and a chance to give it a go! It will be great! And when they hit issues, they just need to expand power and do more. It is common sense, and if it saves just one life it will be great!

    There are lots of articles even from the left controlled media saying AWB and buy backs won’t help, universal background checks wouldn’t have prevented the various high profile shootings, but they ignore that as well in the continuous push for their policies.

    • The issue is never the issue. Though, in the long term, I think they really do want to see civilians disarmed. In the short term, I don’t think this is about reducing “gun violence,” violent crime in general, or disarming people. It’s more likely to be about giving them mechanisms to imprison/fine/persecute people who do not bend to their will with sufficient enthusiasm and obsequiousness.

      • There are certainly some of the movers and shakers behind big government that see things from that pragmatic point of view. Merely a step to getting maximum control.

  4. I appreciate how the author placed the word “apparent” before the title “President-elect” in the article, instead of parroting the mainstream propaganda that Sleepy Joe has been appointed by God Almighty himself to be our next Oval Office occupant.

    • Yeah, when did Congress authorize the “Office Of The President Elect”? I’ve been around for 71 years and this is the first I’ve EVER heard of such an OFFICE, AND doesn’t Creepy Uncle Joe have to wait until Congress certifies the electors vote before he ACTUALLY becomes the president ELECT?

      • “Yeah, when did Congress authorize the “Office Of The President Elect”? I’ve been around for 71 years and this is the first I’ve EVER heard of such an OFFICE,…”

        It’s at *least* 12 years old.

        I first saw a “The Office of President Elect” ‘sign’ on a podium Obama was standing behind the day after he was first elected in 2012 :

        https://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-obama-transcript-1107-story.html

        • on a podium Obama was standing behind the day after he was first elected in 2012

          That explains why I missed THAT one…. appreciate the link butI think I’ll pass, the less I see of that guy the better…

      • “when did Congress authorize the “Office Of The President Elect”

        The Marxist’s did, there is No Such Office Constitutionally but then Marxist’s pretend the Constitution doesn’t exist either.

    • “Sleepy Joe”
      That’s no way to talk about me. Haven’t you heard? I have dogs! C’mon man, that means I’m a good dude!

      Just the other day, I got out of the shower, and I’m walking through this little alleyway to get to the bedroom. And I grabbed the ball like this and he ran. And I’m joking, running after him and grab his tail. And what happened was that he slid on a throw rug. And I tripped on the rug he slid on. That’s what happened. I love running after my dogs and grabbing their tails. That’s how we play ball together.

      I can’t wait to chase my dogs down the White House alleyways after I get out of the shower. Hopefully there aren’t any rugs!

  5. Canaduh notwithstanding how about looking at buyba er confiscation worldwide? Any attempt at widespread USA mandatory theft WILL be met with overwhelming force. Countries with no real tradition of gun ownership are/were screwed from the get go. We’ve already had a revolution when a mad king thought stealing American weapons was a great idea. Don’t forget 1861-1865. Or John Brown. Does everyone think millions of our countrymen will become povery stricken because a Dim decrees it? It’s coming…slow Joe & the Hoe be damned.

    • No doubt they are considering letting the antifa and blm thugs do the dirty work. The cops are going to look the other way until one of the thugs gets clocked.
      Watch them spring into action and publicly parade someone for that. Like Kyle.

      • Not quite yet I think, but that may indeed come to pass. Pretty cheap to give out some AKs to thugs and turn them loose to steal, rape, and murder those who do not obey their betters.

        • The non experts with AKs may find it difficult against 300 Win Mag and others at 1500 yards plus. But the ones giving the orders and supplies would be the ones who need to be brought to justice. If they create a shooting war, they are saying freedom and citizens lives are not important, and by that same judgement they have forfeited their own.

    • That “army” of, in the PLA High Command’s own words, wimps, sissies, and little emperors?

      The army that hasn’t fought a real fight in two generations? Tiananmen doesn’t count.

      • But they train hard…. and if they have no qualms about imprisoning, rape/torturing and killing their own people simply because they are told too… what do you think they would do to you and your family…. With the largest standing army in the world at 2.4 million and the third largest nuclear arsenal I would be hesitant to start the shit but resolved (and hoping India would step up) to finish it…

        • UH…..China’s 2.4 million army is not the largest in the world. There are well over 5 million Remington 700s ; 15 million AR-15s….as only two examples. Then, there’s Savage, Mossberg, Winchester, oh yeah Ruger, et el, et el. Well, you get it. Fortunately, reticle black contrasts nicely with UN Blue or Chinese red; BLM/AntFart black…..illuminated reticle. Japan’s Gen. Yamamoto was wise in fearing on the US mainland there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass……and a Patriot who knows how to use it. We have enough firearms……hoard ammo. It’s gonna be a TRE.

        • Remingtons and ARs are not a STANDING army… A gun requires a body to function and using my personal experience as the owner of 30 plus “Remingtons, Winchesters, ARs, Rugers, S&W, Taurus and assorted foreign made military rifles” I can attest to the fact that I can only use one at a time (with the exception of some handguns) AND they have expressed no desire to go off on their own to do battle in a foreign country… I’m pretty sure the Chinese can probably come up with at least four or five guns per head in their 2.4 million PERSON army… OBTW India is #2 with 1.3 million active duty and 1 million ACTIVE reserves and the U.S. is 3rd with 1.2 million so combined we COULD beat the Chinese number, however Russia with 1 million active and 2.4 million reserves could flip those odds back to the ChiComs…
          FYI; “Yamamoto was wise in fearing on the US mainland there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass”… There has been MUCH doubt cast onto the validity of that quote, sounds cool and mostly true but doubtful that he actually said that….

  6. I simply Do Not care what laws politicians pass, executive orders president evoke or judges decree. I Will Not abide or comply with/to any attempt to further weaken or de solve my Rights as invoked and protected by the Constitution/Bill of Rights. If I am to be named a criminal so be it. I will gladly accept that moniker knowing that I carry it in good company. As did the Founding Patriots who stood in the face of overwhelming numbers brought forth by the Tyranny of a Regime who wished to deprive them of their Rights and control their destiny. Even knowing they could lose all they cared for and even their lives they were willing to stand against that which they believed was wrong. If I must fight I do so not for what it may hold for me, but for what it may hold for those who come after me. I have lived a good life. Lived hard, worked hard and played hard. I have seen many wonders that only by living in a nation governed by Freedom and Liberty have they graced my existence. Each must choose what is right for them. Accepting to live under Tyranny simply because it affords continued life or risking everything to live in and pass forward the joys that a life of Freedom/Rights endows. Keep Your Powder Dry

    • The thing they will not address is the cost in lost lives, devastated families, decimated LEO departments and destroyed liberty. To stop what? Nothing at all. If they managed to get every gun 100%, which hasn’t ever been done in history, the government is likely to kill 10s if not 100s of millions. That is historical fact. Save maybe one or two and kill millions and liberty. Sounds logical to me.

  7. Canadian politicians need to confront the very people who voted for them who also commit crimes with guns. America has the same problem in most large cities and some states.

  8. The thing they will not address is the cost in lost lives, devastated families, decimated LEO departments and destroyed liberty. To stop what? Nothing at all. If they managed to get every gun 100%, which hasn’t ever been done in history, the government is likely to kill 10s if not 100s of millions. That is historical fact. Save maybe one or two and kill millions and liberty. Sounds logical to me.

    • One of the core tenets of leftism is global depopulation so I doubt they’d see any bloodshed as a negative.
      They’ve already sentenced 100’s of millions of 3rd worlders to starve to death with their global WuFlu lockdowns.

      • True that. Since we are descendants of ameobas formed on crystals, we have no intrinsic value other than horsepower. So its not immoral to eliminate advanced ameobas.

  9. Don’t know how that post got duplicated.

    In any case, I suspect in America we would end up with a two justice system, where free citizens will declare gun control null and void and end up making citizens arrests on bad actors and conduct trials if the current courts won’t adhere to the Constitution.

  10. The real goal is to get people to stash their firearms. So that ‘legal’ use of a firearm becomes uncommon. They are attempting to control the narrative.

    As for the firearms industry their goal is to choke out competition so that companies they have stakes in will thrive.

    This has and always will be about money and power.

    They can and will take advantage of any unfortunate event to further persuade you to trade freedom for false sucerity.

    • That is true. Ban new scary guns from being sold to civilians, restrict ammo like California, limit the (legal) online market place,

      Continue to restrict models as work arounds come out like California does. Make it hard or illegal to transfer, sell, or inherit the now banned scary guns. Sure there will be lots of boat accidents, but will everyone be showing up with their cool tactical guns at the range? Over time you won’t be able to buy that AR barrel or parts for your 80% lower. Ranges may get pressured to not let you shoot scary banned firearms, so then the guns have to go under deep cover. Yay you have them, but can’t use them for fear of the government. Exactly what they want. Make a few examples when they catch a few people on other charges.

      • Bear in mind that there is a lot of acreage – measured in square miles – where there is no constabulary on patrol nor anyone else to blow the whistle.

        In such precincts owners and visitors will be free to practice their skills with impunity.

        • The lives of POTG will not be the only lives lost should an attempt at confiscation occur. The grabbers should consider the value of their lives and the survival of their families. If the politicians putting forth these laws and schemes had to actually hit the street, there might be some overnight change of heart.

        • What about when you’re driving to and from your remote Shootin Spot and get pulled over?
          Or you have an accident on the way back?
          They will search your car and find them and you are now under arrest for a felony.
          And don’t forget those hidden guns in your closet when you get into a nasty divorce or your child is angry at you and they call a red flag complaint on you.
          Or what if you have some kind of medical emergency and EMS and the police enter your house and see your illegal guns.
          And how are you going to get your gun repaired when it malfunctions and the repair is more than you can handle?
          Lets pretend you are able to practice with your gun on your remote acreage, 10, 15, 20 years from now when you die who’s going to inherit them?
          Your kids may not want to have contraband that’s liable to get them 10 years in jail if it somehow discovered.
          Once the guns are banned, there will be fewer of them every year.
          Then the tyrants can really get down to the business of a opressing the citizens

  11. It’sJust because you’re really, really, really, ridiculously goodlooking doesn’t mean you can’t not die in a freak gun confiscation accident.

  12. They can have my guns, ALL of them, for $220,000.00 each (I have a deep emotional bond with each of them) and all of my ammo at $2.00 a round… Comes to about 4.5 mil, enough to buy that beach front in Belize and get far away from what is rapidly becoming the NEXT shit-hole third world country.. Anyone has a problem with that can engage in a particular sexual experience with themselves and then gorge on feces until they ease to exist…

  13. “And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? . . . We didn’t love freedom enough.We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

    ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago

    At the end of the day, we will be as servile as the Russians.

  14. Here in the USA, they will run out of people to come and take our guns before we run out of guns and ammo for then to confiscate.

  15. They won’t come and take it. They’ll attempt to make us live in fear thinking they will.

    I will continue to practice with my AR regardless if more legislation passes. I have no problem being the proverbial sacrificial lamb now; being law abiding, quiet, and passive is the reason why we are here in the first place.

    My question is whether or not I will have the support of gun activists in the event I take it to court.

    • Thank you for your willingness to be a trophy so the rest of us can live in peace.

      I give this advice again.

      First rule of operating in a denied area:. Don’t get noticed.

      Second rule of operating in a denied area: Stay away from the chest pounders. Hanging out with them violates the first rule and they are likely to be agent provocateurs

    • regardless, they will continue to take what they can. Because we let them. It’s why we are here in the current chaos that is 2020. You can live in denial that our system will save your precious freedoms all you want, and fudds like tdiinva can join you.

      • F**ktard, resistence is not a “home by Christmas” affair. It is long term effort. Take a lesson from the Irish. You got Sien Fein to do open legal political action and then you got the IRA to take action. But in this case the action is simple Irish Democracy but you don’t get this because, well, you are a f**ktard who will win a Darwin award right off the bat. Every resistance movement requires a few martyrs. You will get a song and statue and the IQ of the population will go up.

        • You think I don’t know the war isn’t over in a day? Motherfucker I was in Iraq and AFG, AFTER WE “WON”.

          I told people in VA they better set up base camp and stop being herded like cattle. Look what they achieved.

          I think you are just mad that you are too pussy to be the tip of the spear and accept the whole “in the rear with the gear mentality” to be superior? Fuck outta here with that mindset you salty sailor. Take your tug boat back to the calm waters and let the big boys sail the rough seas. We don’t fucken need your supplies, POG.

        • You think I don’t know the war isn’t over in a day? Motherfucker I was in Iraq and AFG, AFTER WE “WON”.

          I told people in VA they better set up base camp and stop being herded like cattle. Look what they achieved.

          I think you are just mad that you are too scared to be the tip of the spear and accept the whole “in the rear with the gear mentality” to be superior? Fuck outta here with that mindset you salty sailor. Take your tug boat back to the calm waters and let the big boys sail the rough seas. We don’t fucken need your supplies, POG.

          You call them “martyrs” – we call them soldiers.

          Also, glad to see you finally came back out of hiding, you FUDD motherfucker. Now I’ll keep running you over with that bus you constantly throw yourself under like before your hiatus away from TTAG. Admit it – you are not one of us. You don’t belong. You will comply. You will bend the knee. You will surrender.

        • You know how I can tell you are chest pounder and not a fed? Because you don’t have the brains to be a fed and that’s a low bar. If you know wars aren’t won in a day then why would you be the first guy to get shot by the feds? It must be because you are short on brainpower or have a terminal illiness.

        • How many wars have you fought in? You seem to be missing the point. When I need MRE’s in 2021, I’ll force my way into your comfort zone for them and pretty much everything else I can grab.

        • Let me give you a tip from “spy school” because that is the environment we are talking about. If the threat knows who you are and you don’t know who they are you lose even if your are better in a straight up fight. That is why chest pounders like you are easy marks. You are the dumb f**k we read about who gets set up by the feds l, you know like “plot” to kidnap Whitmer.

          I did spook work in the Balkans in the 90s if you must know. Not movie stuff, but I got similar surveillance/counter surveillance and personal protection training,. Never carried a gun because only an idiot would in circumstances.

        • Yea, you sound like a spook.

          Since when has “the man” not been watching? If I am a chest pumper, your chest has been caved in from that weight of control for a long time. Fuck off, FUDD.

          btw, I know my assigned fedboi by name. I call him CARL.

    • The first time the Rats go to homes of the law abiding to confiscate firearms the gloves come off and we go to their homes. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

  16. How can legislation enacted by executive fiat be constitutional in a Parliament/Prime Minister government?

    If being Prime Minister means Fidel rules the country, why does Parliament exist?

  17. For the attention of those who should be paying a whole lot of attention, and probably aren’t, Canadians are, for whatever reason, a whole lot more respectful of and subservient to authority than are Americans.

  18. Time for a joke. I heard this one when I visited Saskatoon, Saskatchewan a few years ago:

    Why do the local folks oil their lawns? To keep their guns from rusting.

  19. Oiling the lawn, that’s hilarious. I have a old Chevy truck that makes a automatic oiler, just have to park it in the right spot to keep those rifles oiled.
    Never underestimate the stupidity of people. If Sleepy Joe and the Hoe attempt it, it will start a second revolution. They are clueless about the America outside the metropolitan areas.

  20. This is all Kabuki theater. Like the way JoHo pandered to the purple-haired sexually-confused loony left to get votes, but he (she? ze?) is still appointing corporatist oligarch shills and globalists to his (her? zer?) cabinet. As it stands now, the Dems have a five seat margin in the House, the smallest since the nineteenth century. Even if they get 50 seats in the Senate (which is unlikely), I can’t see this going anywhere. The cost alone will make most congresscritters blanch, especially since they want money for “reparations” and other nonsense. As for packing the courts, that’s going nowhere for the same reason.

    And Trump still isn’t down for the count.

    Nevertheless, it would be a good idea to donate to the SAF to support the inevitable court challenges.

    • The cost alone will make most congresscritters blanch,

      These people are writing checks/IOUs for TRILLIONS and you seriously think they give a damn about a few BILLION to send stooge boy Obozo and a goon squad out into the world to sew hate and discontent among the masses…

  21. If government officials are willing to put lives at risk to seize your firearms, it’s only because what is coming after is even worse … (for you)!

    Think about it.

    RESIST

  22. If. the police officer holds his oath above his job the citizens need not worry. If
    If he doesn’t they’ll get us one by one, it’s not going to be a war.
    “Hey, did you hear about the nut job that barricaded himself in his house and took on the SWAT team? Yeah they went on a complaint call, his Canary was bothering the neighbours, he had a whole arsenal of firearms, a real nut job. Glad they got him something is wrong with someone who has to have that many firearms. “

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