OTTAWA — Disarm criminals, not licensed firearm owners.
That’s the opinion shared by a plurality of Quebecers according to a new Leger poll released this week , suggesting citizens of l a belle province want the government to take action on illegal firearms smuggled into Canada from the United States rather than confiscate legally-owned firearms from licensed owners.
“This shows there’s clearly a disconnection between what the Public Safety Minister said a few weeks ago, versus what Quebecers believe is the right approach to tackle gun crime,” said Nicolas Gagnon, Quebec director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who commissioned the poll.
“And it really shows that Quebecers believe we should not be going after legal gun owners and hunters, but against the real culprit here — the smugglers bringing illegal firearms over the borders.”
Gun grab is big in Quebec, Anandasangaree claims
The poll was prompted by remarks made by Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree , where in leaked audio recordings he implied that strong support in Quebec is behind the government’s gun grab.
“Quebec is in a different place than other parts of Canada,” Anandasangaree said in a recorded conversation with a tenant of his that was made public in September.
“This is something that (is) very much a big, big, big deal for many of the Quebec electorate that voted for us.”
According to the poll, 51% of respondents favour introducing tougher measures to stop the flow of prohibited weapons flooding into Canada from the United States — a problem police agencies have long said is responsible for most of the crime guns found on Canadian streets.
Only 37% said banning the sale or ownership of many varieties of firearms should be the focus of gun crime reduction measures , including the government’s so-called “buyback” gun grab.
Six per cent said none of those two options are the answer, and 7% didn’t have a response.
Experts and police agree: licenced gun owners aren’t behind street crime spike
While the government claims confiscating firearms is the key to improving public safety, licensed owners, firearms athletes and even Canada’s police chiefs have gone on record saying Canada’s gun crime problem lies in prohibited weapons being smuggled into Canada — not with law-abiding hunters and shooters.
Many of the guns taken off city streets are firearms not legal for lawful sale in Canada, as criminals favour smaller handguns with prohibitively-short barrels.
The gun grab, maintains the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights (CCFR,) is shaping up to be an expensive and politically-damaging boondoggle — costing over $100 million to buy back 10,000 firearms.
The CCFR has long called for a relaxation of the confiscation, urging the government to incorporate grandfather clause .
As well, many retailers forced to surrender their now-prohibited firearms are still waiting to be paid.
Canada’s current effort to confiscate weapons stemmed from the April 2020 Nova Scotia attacks , where a 51-year-old gunman used firearms smuggled into Canada from the United States to kill 22 people.
That prompted the Justin Trudeau Liberals to enact a May 2020 order-in-council banning the sale, transportation or use of so-called “assault-style” firearms.
The poll was conducted between Oct. 3 and Oct. 5 via Leger’s online panel of 1,010 Quebec-resident adults.
As margins-of-error cannot be applied to online panels, a comparable sample would yield a margin of ±3.1%, 19 times out of 20.
