The Liberals are trying to put some fine details to their latest gun confiscation program. What does that mean for Canadian gun owners? We ask the National Firearms Association (NFA) what they are doing and how much it's going to cost.
00:01:37.520He cannot buy from me or buy back from me that which was never his to begin with.
00:01:42.820This all comes from the May 2020 Order in Council by the Liberals, which banned at the time 1,500 popular models of Canadian firearms.
00:01:54.820That list has now grown to 2,000 models.
00:01:59.620And the Liberals say that it's going to cost upwards of $30 million to confiscate the lawfully acquired,
00:02:06.440lawfully owned property from millions of Canadians made criminals through no fault of their own.
00:02:13.380Now, in the wake of that announcement, controversy exploded in the Canadian firearms community as an industry lobby group admitted that they would be participating in gathering up data for the Liberals to execute their gun confiscation program.
00:02:36.920And joining me today is Rick Igersich of the National Firearms Association to help us navigate through this crazy, crazy past week in the Canadian firearms community.
00:03:29.400Put it in layman's terms, because I'm not actually sure the Liberals know what they just announced.
00:03:34.940Oh, thanks for having me on your show again, Sheila.
00:03:38.280And I'm sure the Liberals, you know, they're, it's classic Liberal talk.
00:03:43.560But basically, there's been a lot of stuff that's happened over the last few days.
00:03:48.460Starting on April 26th, the Public Safety Minister, Marco Mendocino, made a statement that he's partnering with the CSA, which is the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Association.
00:04:02.400And basically, it has come to light that he has signed a contract with them for $707,000.
00:04:41.880And they made this deal, unbeknownst to us, and from what I've heard, even some of their board members, with the government that's been, they've been in talks for a year and a half about what they're going to do and how they're going to do this.
00:04:58.660Because I received a phone call about 12 hours before this happened from the president of the CSAAA, stating that there's going to be a big announcement the next day involving the government and the CSAAA.
00:05:12.040So, I really didn't get into the details of it, and he really didn't want to.
00:05:17.400So, I waited until the next morning, and Minister Mendocino made the announcement that they are partnering with them.
00:05:23.280And by doing that, a gun organization is basically on the sides, on the side of the liberals with these firearm seizures.
00:05:36.660And what they're going to do is, the way I understand it, is the CSAAA is going to go and contact every gun shop in Canada to see what sort of inventory they have in firearms and parts for those firearms.
00:05:49.500And they're going to provide that list to the government for the government to use on this so-called buyback program, which I believe is probably, if there's going to be any buyback at all, it's going to be cents on the dollar.
00:06:05.360Plus, it's basically what it's all doing is identifying all these firearms and parts that are in the hands of the dealers, which really brings into play a bunch of different issues.
00:06:18.040The first issue is that there's a federal court case going on that we were a part of.
00:06:22.480We financed the Cassie Premack federal court case against the government.
00:06:28.760And along with, we were grouped in with a bunch of other groups.
00:06:32.940And some of these other people that were involved in this court action are actually firearm shops owners.
00:06:42.040So this kind of nullifies their court case, in my opinion, when the government is finding out what they have and offering money for them.
00:06:52.020And meanwhile, there's an active court case, which is now in the judge's hands in deliberation, I believe is nullifying some of these cases.
00:07:00.620And then secondly, I believe that by these people cooperating with the liberals, this is just going to fast track the actual gun seizures.
00:07:14.340As far as I know, the government has nothing in place as far as the gun seizures go.
00:07:22.160There's no plan on how they're going to do this.
00:07:27.060But in my opinion, this really, really fast tracks the liberals' seizure plans because now they're claiming that the gun industry and the firearms owners are cooperating with them, which is a falsehood.
00:07:45.040So this organization is cooperating, but firearms, I can assure you, firearms owners across Canada are not cooperating with the liberals on this deal.
00:07:54.920So at the end of the day, Canada's National Firearms Association has cut all ties with the CSSA.
00:08:02.140We will be more than happy to reunite and rejoin them if they go back on this deal and cancel the contract and cancel the $707,000 with the government.
00:08:14.120We would be more than happy to work with them so we can all follow the same direction as far as these firearms seizures go.
00:08:23.620Yeah, it sounds like a lot of gun rights organizations were completely caught flat-footed by what the CSAA has done.
00:08:35.340And, you know, not to confuse them with the CSSA, but it sounds like the CCFR, the NFA, and the CSSA, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, were all sort of blindsided by discovering that this industry lobby group that's supposed to lobby on behalf of the industry, serve as a counterbalance against what the government is trying to do.
00:08:58.980So that they, for lack of a better term, lent their credibility to the government so that the government can say, look, we've got the gun people on board with our buyout.
00:10:18.900I don't know if it's going to cost that much this year because it doesn't seem like they budgeted for it in the budget.
00:10:24.860But that is what they anticipate the cost will be, which is absolute idiocy because they have no idea how many of the guns on the ban list are out there,
00:10:34.140where they are, how many of them came into the country after the gun registry.
00:10:39.340They have no idea how many of them weren't registered ever to begin with.
00:10:43.920So they can't even get a best estimate, but they know exactly how much it's going to cost.
00:10:49.120I always go back to the SKS because it's cheap.
00:10:51.480It's, you know, it's a lot of entry level gun and there's a lot of them out there.
00:10:56.740And, and the liberals don't know how many of them are out there, but they know how much it's going to cost around them all up.
00:11:01.360Well, there's some stuff that's come to light on the SKS as of yesterday, but anyway, just like you mentioned,
00:11:08.080the liberals don't know how many guns are out there and how much money they have to spend.
00:11:11.360Well, you know, with this program, this contract with this partner, I guess what Mendocino called it, this partner's partnership.
00:11:19.020They're going to, they're going to get a pretty comprehensive list, at least what's at the gun shops.
00:11:25.180And I don't know if the gun shops are going to provide, I hope they don't provide a list of some of the firearms they sold and where they went.
00:11:33.260You know, the, you know, by law, I don't think, I don't think that information, the government is entitled to that information that, you know,
00:11:42.720and that could change because laws are changing every day.
00:11:45.120But like I say, you know, this, this, hey, this, this basically turned the firearms rights upside down in the last few days.
00:11:55.800I, you know, I, like you said, it, it was like being hit with a lead balloon.
00:11:59.380It turned everything, it just blindsided us.
00:12:42.120I'll have to, I've got so much stuff here.
00:12:43.680I'm going to have to refer to my notes, but yeah.
00:12:47.460Yesterday, Marco Mendocino announced that there will be amendments to Bill C-21 again to prohibit more legally and commonly owned firearms.
00:13:00.260And they're going to add a definition to an assault style firearm.
00:14:12.080It started, as everybody knows, it started at 1,500.
00:14:15.760It's a, he admitted yesterday that there's 2,000 firearms listed in the Ordering Council.
00:14:20.980Uh, what he said was that, uh, that the list is, uh, with, with their studies and stuff, they, they've added a bunch of firearms to the list.
00:14:31.180And now you brought up the SKS, which is really funny because he made the statement yesterday that he said, he said that the SKS, they're not going to ban the SKS.
00:14:42.640Now, after speaking to, uh, after speaking of, this is a good one to be after speaking to, uh, hunters, sport shooters, indigenous groups, and everybody else across the country, they're going to, uh, they're going to leave the SKS out of, out of the, off the list, which I found really shocking because at the end of the day, the SKS is probably the only firearm that's available in Canada.
00:15:09.180Well, one of the, one of the, one of the modern ones that were, that was actually built for, uh, as, uh, as a, as a military firearm.
00:15:57.160Um, so I don't know what direction that's going in, but, uh, I'm sure, um, Mendocino is very, uh, well-versed in, in, uh, how he, how he puts the, the, the message out.
00:16:10.800And I think that was a, that was a message.
00:16:12.500Uh, and he made the statement that, uh, the liberals are moving in the direction of what most Canadians want.
00:16:25.260And blame the conservatives for creating a national crisis over their last, uh, attempt to, uh, get rid of the amendments.
00:16:33.960So he's, uh, he's definitely, uh, playing politics with this one.
00:16:39.220And getting into, uh, getting into my next thing is, uh, the term, uh, the liberals are actually, and I mentioned this earlier, are putting a definition.
00:16:47.260Definition, they're making up a definition for an assault style firearm to be, get this, enshrined in the criminal code.
00:16:55.860So it's going to make these, uh, new, make it extremely difficult for future governments to reverse and revise their firearms definition in legislation.
00:17:06.660But going back to the definition, so a firearm that is not a handgun that discharges centerfire ammunition is a semi, in a semi-automatic manner and designed with a detachable magazine with a capacity of six or more cartridges.
00:17:26.180So that puts a whole bunch of new firearms on the list because there's a lot of semi-automatic firearms out there that could take eight or 10 shot magazines.
00:17:37.340Uh, that was, that was, uh, that was his, uh, statement.
00:17:42.400Now they did release, they did release a government, uh, a government paper on that with, it's very vague and there's no real good definitions in them, but that's the direction we're going.
00:17:54.380And, uh, like I say, this stuff has all happened within the last four days.
00:18:00.980Yeah, that captures so many hunting rifles and sports shooting firearms in this country.
00:18:08.200I, I, I wish people who were not firearms owners were more keenly, uh, attuned to this because this is the government just deciding one day that you're lawfully acquired property.
00:18:23.640They don't like it, so you can't have it.
00:18:26.340And they get to talk to your political enemies about whether or not you get to keep it and you just have to sit there and take it.
00:18:32.840And then once it's banned, they'll pay you a pittance, as you say, pennies on the dollar to confiscate it from you.
00:18:39.400Um, thankfully, we've got places like Alberta where we have our own CFO saying the hell you will.
00:18:45.260So, um, so, uh, you know, I, I feel good about living in Alberta.
00:18:51.240Um, although we are approaching, uh, an election, it's election season here in Alberta.
00:18:55.880I think Danielle Smith will do fine, not as good as she should, but fine.
00:19:00.540But, um, you know, I really feel for the people of Ontario and Quebec where they, they don't have a provincial government that is standing up for the rights of lawful gun owners.
00:19:10.740And, you know, we've been lobbying Doug Ford in Ontario too, because he, if he were to jump on board with this, you know, this was basically, uh, squash this whole thing.
00:19:19.660But he just, uh, I don't know, there's a, there's a lot of federal money coming into Ontario right now.
00:19:25.320And I think that's part of the problem.
00:19:26.580I was in Calgary a couple of weeks ago at the Calgary gun show.
00:19:29.820And I had a really good conversation with Terry Bryant, the Alberta CFO.
00:19:33.640And, uh, you know, she is, uh, she is one of our soldiers on the front lines too.
00:19:38.160You know, I just hope, I just hope the government does not change in Alberta because that is going to do a lot of damage to, uh, what, uh, what Terry Bryant has done and has accomplished.
00:19:47.740I just, I just hope that, uh, that, uh, you know, it goes in our, that it goes our way.
00:19:53.720You know, and it, it may seem like just an Alberta issue, but Alberta's really seems to be leading the way.
00:19:59.600They're sticking their neck out first and saying, okay, well, this is what we're going to do.
00:20:03.600And then the dominoes fall in Saskatchewan and then in other provinces and territories, they seem to be the ones who are willing to say, okay, well, we're going to do this first.
00:20:13.120If you want to come along, that's fine.
00:20:14.540So if the government does change in Alberta, pray for us that it doesn't, um, you know, it will affect gun rights across the entire country because they really seem to be leading the charge fighting back against this at a provincial level.
00:20:28.840And the fact that, uh, that, uh, people that are involved in the firearms industry are, uh, uh, jumping on board with the liberals doesn't make things, uh, any better.
00:20:38.000It actually makes, it makes my job a lot harder.
00:20:40.040You know, I just, I, I had some really good ties with CS AAA and I, you know, I regret, I regret cutting our ties, but you know, I have to, I have to represent firearms owners across Canada.
00:20:50.620I can't, I can't be connected to, uh, an organization that works with the government, uh, you know, moving forward to, uh, these firearms camp, confiscations, uh, liberals were liberals world for a buyback as a conference or for a confiscation as a buyback.
00:21:05.200But I, I, I will not, uh, our organization will not be, uh, involved with that.
00:21:11.860It, it, it really is a shame because one of the key points of all the gun rights organizations and all the lobby groups is that we don't want to give our data to the government because giving the data to the government always leads to confiscation.
00:21:25.940And then you have this industry lobby group that is taking a contract to round up the data, um, and then give it to the liberals.
00:21:35.240And it, you know, it was just shocking to see.
00:21:38.060Well, you know, I spoke, I spoke to them and, uh, and I said, you know, why are you doing this?
00:21:44.160Well, you know, their, their reply was that we're helping the poor ma and pa gun shop owners across Canada with this, uh, with this payout.
00:21:53.600So I said, is any of this, uh, $707,000 going towards the, towards the ma and pa gun shops?
00:22:01.340That just, that just, uh, cover our, uh, cover the logistics of, uh, of doing this survey.
00:22:06.700I go, Oh, I said, so, uh, I, I, I travel across Canada and I go to a lot of gun shops, Sheila, and the smaller gun shops maybe have one or two of these rifles that have already been washed through their, uh, through their books three years ago.
00:22:22.660Uh, they, the, they did not have any reply when I said, what about the future guns that, uh, that are illegal now that these people could possibly selling, be selling down the road and making money on.
00:22:36.520And making their profits and making their businesses prosper.
00:22:40.360And there was no reply to that end of it.
00:22:42.440There was just, uh, well, we're helping them out right now because they're in trouble, which I don't believe is the fact.
00:22:47.180I believe there is some bigger gun shops in the country that happened.
00:22:51.120They do have some of this stock, but at the end of the day, uh, I, I don't believe that this is going to make or break them.
00:22:58.760I believe the fact that they're banning all these firearms in Canada is going to be the deal breaker for these gun shops because it's firearms.
00:23:05.940People want, and they can't sell anymore.
00:23:07.780And that, you know, and that, when you cut stock, you cut profits.
00:23:10.600And at the end of the day, that's when, that's when businesses go down, not because of some, uh, uh, dormant or stale stock that they have in their, in their stock rooms right now.
00:23:21.540Well, it's stranded assets is a real thing, but especially here in Alberta, we, we get oil and gas stranded assets all the time.
00:23:28.760Um, but you know, what's worse is that the list of stranded assets continues to grow in this case by 25%.
00:23:37.400And it will continue to grow as long as you have, um, uh, for lack of a better term, yellow organizations like this organization selling up their membership.
00:23:46.940You know, you help these mom and pop shops who don't have the resources to fight.
00:23:55.860That's why we, we initially started fight the fines, um, which we handed off to the democracy fund.
00:24:01.680When people were getting pandemic fines, we weren't going to pay their fines, but we would do whatever it took to fight like hell on their behalf.
00:24:09.400Spending an enormous amount of money to fight an $800 fine.
00:24:12.420But it was the point is that you never capitulate to the government because the government will always take more.
00:24:18.360And, um, I don't know if you listened to Sirius XM, Andrew Wilkow, but he always says on the Patriot channel, but he always says when the government is handing you something with an open hand, the other hand is always a fist.
00:24:32.520Um, so, you know, if the CS AAA thinks that they are going to somehow get ahead by, um, appeasing the crocodile, the crocodile will eat you.
00:24:45.320He just might eat you last, but he will get around to eating you.
00:24:47.900And that's, what's going to happen here.
00:24:50.680You know, and, and I'll, I'll say again, there's a way around this, you know, they could, they could cancel this contract and give the money back.
00:24:57.620And, uh, we will be more than happy to, uh, join up with them again and, and help them, uh, fight, fight for gun rights and property rights in Canada.
00:25:05.960You know, that's that, that it's a very simple solution.
00:25:08.980I don't know if it's going to happen or not, but, uh, the direction we're moving in right now is not doing the firearms lobby or firearms owners across Canada any good at all.
00:25:28.360Um, we're not going to do this and we're going to get back into the fight, uh, because this list of banned firearms just keeps growing and it's never going to stop.
00:25:35.720If they said that I'd be their biggest fan.
00:25:38.380And so would I, I would, I would be, I would be, I would be at their door in a few hours and say, Hey, let's, let's, uh, let's join again and let's fight this fight.
00:25:46.440But, uh, you know, I hope that's what happens.
00:25:49.500Like I say, it was regrettable that we had to cut our ties, but, uh, we had to, it just, we could, we can't be associated.
00:25:55.700With, uh, with, uh, organization like that, that works, uh, that's working against, uh, what we believe in.
00:26:18.260So if the CS AAA is listening, this is from me directly to you reverse this, um, get back in the, in the fight, um, because the liberals are only going to use this to further divide the gun, uh, community.
00:26:31.360And they are going to use this as justification to do more.
00:26:35.020So please cancel this contract and come back to your sanity.