Juno News - September 24, 2023


Still no ＂buyback＂ program for Trudeau's banned guns (ft. Rod Giltaca)


Episode Stats

Length

18 minutes

Words per Minute

191.94417

Word Count

3,493

Sentence Count

168

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I wanted to talk about the firearms file because you may know I am a gun owner and I have one of
00:00:14.060 those evil scary AR-15s that the liberal government banned in May of 2020 in response
00:00:20.380 to a mass shooting, well not a mass shooting, a spree killing in Nova Scotia which involved
00:00:26.580 no legally owned firearms which is a very key part of this distinction. So as a result it would not
00:00:32.680 have been prevented by anything that the liberals have put into force either through that order in
00:00:37.660 council or in subsequent legislation but never let facts get in the way of the government's
00:00:42.880 narrative on this. At its core the government said we're going to do a two-year ban, we're going to
00:00:48.460 put in an am, well a permanent ban but a two-year amnesty period and in that two years we're going
00:00:53.180 to set up a buyback program where we can buy back something that we never owned in the first place
00:00:58.280 which is your lawfully acquired and licensed property. And instead the government has not
00:01:04.160 managed to do it, they've spent millions of dollars despite not actually setting up this buyback
00:01:08.060 program, they've extended the amnesty period, now it is set to elapse in less than six weeks and still
00:01:14.640 not a single gun has been purchased by the government. I am still sitting on one of these
00:01:20.020 guns that I am not legally allowed to do anything with but look at. I can ogle it perhaps but that's
00:01:25.560 about it. And business owners, as we chronicled in our documentary Assaulted, Justin Trudeau's War
00:01:31.100 on Gun Owners, have still been sitting for now over three years on hundreds of thousands, millions of
00:01:37.000 dollars in inventory that they cannot sell, they can't return and the government has given them no
00:01:41.860 mechanism to offload to them. So it's a bit of a problem but we have a legal action from the Canadian
00:01:49.440 Coalition for Firearm Rights, whose head Rod Giltaka joins us now. Rod, always good to talk
00:01:54.980 to you. Thanks for coming on today. Thanks for having me Andrew. So I mean let's, I was going to have
00:01:59.800 you on anyway to talk about this but you've taken some action here in the last day. What's going on?
00:02:05.080 Well we have prepared all the paperwork to file and a, sorry, to file an injunction against the federal
00:02:15.720 government for, basically because they're waiting. Every time this amnesty deadline rolls around,
00:02:23.180 the government waits till the last couple of days and it stresses a lot of gun owners. People like me,
00:02:30.000 I understand the political consequences to the liberals for not renewing the amnesty,
00:02:34.680 which I'm sure they're going to do it, but for the everyday gun owner, especially elderly people,
00:02:39.840 as that deadline approaches, they start to get very nervous and some people might even turn in
00:02:45.500 their guns because they're worried they'll become criminals. So the reason why we file these
00:02:49.700 injunctions, even though it's not absolutely legally necessary yet, is because the government is playing
00:02:57.040 this game with people and the reason I know that is I have a, I don't know, I would say 20 to 40
00:03:03.520 people somewhere, somewhere in that region that contact the CCFR each time that this amnesty was
00:03:10.640 coming to an end. And these people are stressed and it's, in my opinion, it's the way that the
00:03:15.520 government makes people feel small. You know, maybe, maybe we'll renew it, maybe we won't. So we just
00:03:20.680 wanted to force their hand, like we did last time around, to, to hurry up, renew it. They don't have to
00:03:26.380 cause stress and, and, and that kind of harm in people's lives and let's just get on with it.
00:03:30.600 Yeah. The, the logic of it is that the government has prohibited these guns. They've given no
00:03:36.540 mechanism by which people can get rid of them. Obviously they can't, uh, you know, just turn
00:03:41.380 around and start doing mass arrests the day after because they're the ones who have failed. So I,
00:03:45.660 I agree with you wholeheartedly that we know they're going to do it, but at the same time,
00:03:49.800 it's the uncertainty. And I think it's the government trying to drive home this point that
00:03:53.500 gun ownership is a privilege that they can take away just as easily as they grant to remind you that
00:03:58.380 your rights don't exist, that your property is not your property.
00:04:02.160 Well, yeah. And most people and rightly so aren't involved in politics. Most people aren't following
00:04:07.560 this stuff like I, uh, you or I do. Right. And it, it, it makes, it terrifies them. And to me,
00:04:13.600 the injustice of that is ridiculous. And it just, it's, it's yet another example of how irresponsibly,
00:04:21.200 uh, the liberals run government. So that's, that's the reason why we're starting earlier than we did
00:04:26.880 last time. Uh, now six weeks to go, uh, to file that injunction and make sure that they just do
00:04:32.140 the right thing and they do it soon and not put people through any more hardship than they're
00:04:36.080 already experiencing in Canada. One thing that I would point out as well, looking at the freeze
00:04:41.240 more broadly is that the government's view was that lawfully owned firearms like AR-15s and other
00:04:49.000 semi-automatic rifles, uh, and including many that were non-restricted and used for hunting before,
00:04:53.940 like mini-14s, that those guns were a danger, even in the hands of people like you and I who are
00:04:59.560 vetted, who are licensed, who keep the guns in the cabinet. And it's so counterintuitive that these
00:05:04.380 things that are such a public safety risk can just be allowed to sort of just exist out in the
00:05:09.140 country indefinitely and keep renewing it. And don't get me wrong. I'm, I'm happy they haven't done
00:05:13.440 the mass confiscation, but it, it undermines their own logic and their own basis for that order and
00:05:18.460 counsel in the first place, which is that these things had to be off the streets and out of
00:05:22.460 people's homes as quickly as possible. Well, of course, and, um, three and a half years later,
00:05:29.060 um, violence has done nothing but increase, uh, disorder and chaos in the streets has done nothing
00:05:34.860 but increase a year, more than a year past the handgun freeze and guns are still being used in urban
00:05:41.100 centers by the same people that were using them before. So it's, uh, again, gun control is about
00:05:47.880 98% political. There are, as a, as a group, we know that there's a place for regulation of firearms,
00:05:54.280 but regulation has to be reasonable and it has to be, it has to have a demonstrable positive effect
00:05:59.680 on public safety. And what we've seen from the liberals since day one in 2015 is the exact
00:06:04.780 opposite. And, and I think the, the, the most atrocious part of that is they're using government
00:06:10.020 power to do it. So you need to have a very high degree of responsibility. If you're going to run a G7
00:06:15.460 nation and we just have, we've seen exactly the opposite. We saw a very different approach given,
00:06:21.760 uh, by the government in the May 2020 order and council to their subsequent freeze on handguns
00:06:28.340 with the, the order and council, it was, these guns are basically bricked. You can't take them to the
00:06:32.620 range. You can't shoot them. You can't buy them. You can't sell them with handguns. It was a little
00:06:36.800 bit more lax and what you'd call the grandfathering where, okay, anyone who has one, you can still use
00:06:42.280 it, but you can't buy a new one. You can't transfer it. Do you think that was because they view handguns
00:06:48.240 in this different category? Do you think it was that they realized how much they screwed up on the
00:06:51.520 first one? I think so. I think so. There's nothing stopping the government from, uh, pulling back on
00:06:59.000 some of the provisions that they had created in the May 2020 gun ban, letting people take their gun to
00:07:03.940 the range. You know, I, I have to do a series of videos, uh, this week with, uh, a very popular
00:07:09.620 YouTuber at the range. I hadn't been in the range in a long time, but I would just love to take the
00:07:14.180 guns that I would normally take. But now I have to take other firearms because that are basically
00:07:19.840 equivalent because the firearms that I can't take to the range, you know, I'm prohibited from,
00:07:24.080 from moving them. So they, if the, if the government really wanted to, um, extend an olive branch
00:07:30.540 to all the people like me and you that haven't done anything to deserve to be treated this way,
00:07:34.760 it would be to treat the, uh, the May 2020, uh, now prohibited firearms in the same way that they
00:07:41.400 treated handguns. And I think your point is, is really hits home when you think, well, the majority
00:07:47.600 of firearms used in criminal activity and firearm related violence in Canada, the overwhelming
00:07:51.900 majority are handguns, but they're saying, well, you can still use your handgun as you did before.
00:07:56.520 Just no new ones can come in the country and you can't transfer it. So you, I mean, those things in,
00:08:01.620 in, in real life evidence that you can see with your own eyes show that all of this is a political
00:08:07.660 campaign. It's not, it's not about public safety. It's about politics. It's about getting urban votes,
00:08:12.840 scaring urban voters, uh, getting their votes and then trying to mitigate the damage, uh, among gun
00:08:18.060 owners, uh, politically. So, um, I, I think I would really love to see the day, uh, happen in Canada
00:08:24.660 where we are making laws and policies, uh, with public, with public safety in mind rather than a
00:08:30.620 political motivation. We know that gun owners are just a demographic minority in this country,
00:08:35.880 you know, maybe 2 million gun owners, legal gun owners, and a country of approaching 40 million
00:08:41.020 people. We also know that, uh, polling, uh, shows thanks in large part to media misinformation that
00:08:47.280 gun control measures by governments can come across pretty well, which is why the work you do on
00:08:52.740 education is so important. But at the same time, it would probably pull well for Justin Trudeau and,
00:08:59.880 uh, whoever the public safety minister is now to stand in front of a big giant warehouse full of
00:09:05.000 AR-15s and hold a press conference. They, we've just taken all of these things off the street.
00:09:09.960 They would love to do that. So I'm really curious why you think they haven't. Is it just general
00:09:15.520 bureaucratic ineptitude that has kept this so-called buyback from materializing?
00:09:20.820 Well, the buyback was never reality in the first place, right? So the Trudeau liberals look at
00:09:25.700 countries like Australia or, uh, or New Zealand. New Zealand is a tiny, tiny country. It's like,
00:09:32.440 I think half the size of British Columbia, if I, if I have my geography right, but Canada is a country
00:09:37.280 that is 10 million square kilometers. So there, there are Canadians that are gun owners spread out
00:09:43.780 over a massive, massive, uh, landmass. And to, to create buyback opportunities in local communities
00:09:51.060 across a country so big. And so just so vast is, is a task beyond, certainly beyond this government
00:09:58.080 that's proven it's ineptitudes in so many different ways. Um, but it's also incredibly expensive and
00:10:04.740 even just the administration cost. Plus it's a very specialized operation. It's not like they're
00:10:09.540 distributing checks or something in the mail. You have to have people that are qualified, uh, and
00:10:14.220 legally allowed to handle firearms, uh, to make sure that they're unloaded or can't present, uh, any kind
00:10:20.380 of public safety, uh, issue when you receive them, they have to be secured because God forbid, a gang
00:10:26.000 breaks into some, one of these, uh, collection centers and ends up with, you know, 250 AR-15s,
00:10:31.880 um, plus all the, uh, associated gear that people might inadvertently turn in. I mean, it's just,
00:10:36.520 it was a huge, huge task. And it also required a huge budget that could have easily spun out of
00:10:42.360 control. And it would have been a boondoggle for the liberals, just like the long gun registry was.
00:10:46.500 So there's even political risk there. So there's a number of reasons why they haven't done it. Some
00:10:51.540 of them legitimate and the other, I think political. And I think another point, if I were to add
00:10:57.140 something else, Andrew, is that the, because this is political in nature, the liberals always want to
00:11:03.760 stretch things out so that they become a promise for the next election. They've done it twice already.
00:11:08.880 So they're like, don't worry, urban voters. We are the only political party that will, you know,
00:11:14.920 bring these terrible licensed gun owners to heal, but you'll have to elect us one more time. So
00:11:19.760 there's a lot of reasons I think why you see, uh, delays. There's a, uh, and I think there's also a
00:11:25.140 compelling reason why you don't see so much gun control coming from them right now, because towards
00:11:29.740 the end, it wasn't playing well because they were banning firearms used, generally used for hunting
00:11:36.740 and worse. So, you know, I don't think it gave them the political boost that they thought. I thought,
00:11:41.400 I think that it was probably more damaging than they, than they had imagined. So I guess, uh,
00:11:46.260 the real question is what are we going to see from them in the next month or two?
00:11:49.700 Well, I would also add too, that because it's dragged on so long, there have been other political
00:11:54.260 changes in the, in the country. And you now have provincial governments that are saying we will not
00:11:59.100 allow police resources in this province to be used in any gun confiscation. I mean, we've seen that in
00:12:04.500 Saskatchewan and Alberta, I think Manitoba as well may have done that. So you've now got provinces that
00:12:09.620 are using kind of the one trump card they have, which is, you know, we can't challenge the law
00:12:14.180 itself, but we can say that our police officers will not be playing ball with this.
00:12:18.720 Well, unfortunately the OPP does not reside amongst that group. They, uh, it's badly as an
00:12:24.500 Ontarian. I may have to like take up residence in Alberta when this eventually does come.
00:12:29.200 Yeah, they're, they're, they're cooperating is my understanding. And, uh, in fact,
00:12:33.120 it's my understanding that they're wondering, Hey, what's the, what's the holdup? So, uh, I don't
00:12:37.680 know what that means for Ontarians, but, um, but yeah, that's, uh, that's an unfortunate situation
00:12:43.280 there. So, I mean, look, you want an injunction. How long a delay do you think is ideal? How long
00:12:48.560 are you going to be seeking? Well, I mean, until the next election. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 26 months is what
00:12:56.640 we're after, but, uh, I, I think, um, probably two years would be acceptable. I mean, it's been
00:13:03.400 three and a half years already. They've, they haven't bought a single firearm back and we haven't
00:13:07.760 seen even a framework for a buyback. So I think two years would be, uh, would be the appropriate
00:13:14.080 amount of time. But again, what I would like to see from the liberals, uh, would be for them to just
00:13:20.500 say, okay, you know what? Don't worry about the buyback. We're going to, uh, treat these firearms
00:13:25.120 like we're treating handguns right now. Let the people use them. They haven't done anything.
00:13:29.760 They, you know, they, all these firearms have been safely stored here for three and a half years and
00:13:34.080 everyone's gun safes. Um, and let people use their firearms again, uh, let them use them until, uh,
00:13:40.400 whatever conditions at the end of the life, uh, end of their lives, like they're doing with handguns
00:13:45.440 and, uh, just stop punishing regular people. And, uh, I think that would be probably a good policy
00:13:50.720 for the liberals to, uh, to pursue in the interim. And I'll just add one more thing. If you don't see
00:13:56.560 that because it was reasonable for handguns, if you don't see it, it's because they're looking for
00:14:01.280 a new election promise to try to get reelected in two years. Yeah. And I, I think you're completely
00:14:06.800 right about that, Rod. And I would also point out that I'm in no hurry to have this done. I I'm totally
00:14:12.240 fine with just delaying it indefinitely, except I would love to see the handgun approach, which is to
00:14:16.320 say that if you believe that gun owners are the problem, which the government does, and that,
00:14:21.840 you know, the safety requirements and the restrictions on where you can transport them
00:14:25.440 aren't going to do enough to dissuade crime. It really doesn't matter whether you allow licensed
00:14:29.440 gun owners to go to the range or not like you do with handguns. It's purely, purely punitive
00:14:35.120 and a short sighted. And I think a reminder that this order in council was really like scrawled out on
00:14:39.680 a napkin when a liberal ministers were watching CNN and seeing, oh, well, yeah, maybe we could do something.
00:14:46.320 Yeah. Well, they, they came up with this whole plan in two weeks after the shooting in Nova Scotia.
00:14:51.680 Right. So, um, and then they've been backpedaling ever since, you know, they said that they were
00:14:57.280 Justin Trudeau and Bill Blair said that they would come up with a buyback, you know, at the earliest
00:15:01.600 possible opportunity. And, uh, like we've said several times just in this interview, those two.
00:15:06.960 Well, and even if it were to be launched today to say that it could be done in the next six weeks,
00:15:12.640 like this is like, I think you'd even need over a year of the buyback being in effect to round up
00:15:18.800 every gun in Canada. And that's a low ball. Well, absolutely. I mean, think, think about
00:15:24.240 how many collection centers you'd really need. You know, you'd need one in Nunavut, right?
00:15:30.160 A collection center in Nunavut, even though you're probably going to get,
00:15:32.880 I don't know, 50 guns up there. You might need many in Nunavut just because of the size.
00:15:38.240 Well, yeah. And then their other plan, if you remember, was to get Canada Post
00:15:42.160 to participate and, uh, basically send people boxes that they can put an AR-15 into a functional
00:15:48.560 AR-15 into and then stick along your self-addressed stamped envelope.
00:15:52.640 Yeah. Stick it in the mail, man. Imagine, imagine when a bunch of those go missing. Right. And then,
00:15:58.880 of course, Canada Post's concern was like, well, what are you telling us? Are you telling us that
00:16:02.880 we're going to have post offices around the country where these packages are going to come in for
00:16:07.520 processing to go to a central, central location? And we're going to have offices that have AR-15s and,
00:16:14.640 and, you know, CZ-858 sitting around and our staff were the only thing
00:16:18.880 between those guns and criminals. Like just, it doesn't, it doesn't make sense.
00:16:22.880 Yeah. The Canada Post, uh, processing center in Red Deer, Alberta or something is going to become
00:16:27.280 like better armed than a U S air base. So how are you going to provide security for what,
00:16:32.560 I don't know, 800 different postal locations, even the vehicles that are picking up these packages
00:16:38.320 and going from A to B to the, to, to wherever they're, you know, they're going to receive them.
00:16:42.160 Yeah. Because under the licensing, I wouldn't even be allowed to walk the gun to the post office.
00:16:46.560 Yeah. There, there's a lot of, there's a lot of details there that the government couldn't care
00:16:52.640 less about when they made that, they saw an opportunity and they grabbed it and they've
00:16:56.400 been living with the albatross that they slung around their own necks for three and a half years.
00:17:00.400 Uh, my producer, Sean says it adds a whole new risk of going postal, which, uh, when that's the
00:17:06.400 level of humor we're getting on the show, it's time to wrap things up. Uh, Rod Giltaka from the
00:17:10.560 Canadian coalition for firearm rights. Uh, great to have your cooperation on that documentary
00:17:14.560 assaulted, which, uh, has stood the test of time, I think, because the buyback is still nowhere to
00:17:19.440 be seen businesses that we spoke to there. I ran into a couple of them at your AGM, uh,
00:17:23.920 back, uh, this summer, and they're still dealing with the same inventory they were dealing with
00:17:27.840 when I interviewed them in the spring of 2021. So, uh, thanks so much for that and for coming on
00:17:32.880 today, Rod. Thank you, Andrew. Thanks for listening to the Andrew Lawton Show.
00:17:36.880 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.
00:17:44.560 Mm.
00:17:51.040 big
00:17:52.640 big
00:17:55.220 big
00:17:55.440 big
00:18:00.800 big
00:18:02.400 big
00:18:02.920 big
00:18:04.480 big
00:18:07.040 big
00:18:07.920 big
00:18:10.880 big