Bad idea “buyback” gun grab.
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Summary
The Liberal Firearms confiscation program failed miserably in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, but they're moving it nationally as well. On today's show, we bring on Bob Zimmer, MP for Prince George, Peace River and Northern Rockies, to talk about why this should not be happening.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
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host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps of the Lakes, with new content
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for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe,
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and share this program. Tell your friends they can download it on platforms like CastBox,
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iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. You name it, it is out there. On today's show, the Liberal Firearms
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Confiscation Program fails miserably in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, but they're moving it nationally as
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well. The Liberals seem to fail upwards to talk about this and so much else. We bring on Bob Zimmer. He's
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the Member of Parliament for Prince George, Peace River, and Northern Rockies, also the co-chair
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of the All-Party Parliamentary Outdoor Caucus. Thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me again,
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Jamie. It's good to be here. Good to be back. Unfortunately, it's about the same topic.
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Yes. We keep litigating. Sadly, it just keeps going, doesn't it? The Liberals are just after the
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law-abiding, licensed firearms owners again and again. Right. But they've done everything right.
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I can understand why people want the shootings happening. Yeah, absolutely. Not all in urban
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centres, but across Canada. They want them to stop. I do too. We all do. Right. Yeah, absolutely.
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We all do. They're going about it wrong, as the headline says.
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Yeah. Well, and one statistic that's from Gary Mauser, he's a former professor at Simon Fraser
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University. This is from one of his articles. Between 2000 and 2020, an average of 12 PAL holders,
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that's firearms license holders, per year were accused of homicide out of approximately 2 million
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PAL holders. During that same 10-year period, the PAL holder firearms homicide rate was 0.63 per
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100,000 firearms license holders, compared to 0.72 per 100,000 adult Canadians. That's 14% higher
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than the rate for PAL holders. So what that says is that law-abiding firearms owners, they're not just
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as safe as the average Canadian. They're actually safer.
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They're safer. Yeah. I think proof is also- More law-abiding.
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Yes, absolutely. Especially if you have a restricted firearms license, which allows you to, I guess,
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possess a handgun now, you can't buy them or trade them. Your name is run through the police data bank
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every single day. It's like being on parole every single day of your life.
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Absolutely. So that's what we've said, and our leader, Pierre Poliev, has done a great job of just
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logically explaining that to Canadians. We're winning on that. Most Canadians, you see it from
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province to province to province, where they're pushing back on this because it doesn't make sense.
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They're going to spend, right now, they're at about $746 million, and some quotes as high as $6 billion,
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and I think it's even potentially going to be higher.
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While not doing anything to really change shootings in downtown Toronto.
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Yeah. That's the thing, right? What is the outcome? What is the planned result other than
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Absolutely. So that's the problem that we see, too, is, you know, here you're, you know,
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I think every mother, like I have four children, and I know you have kids. We all want to see safer
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streets for our families and their families, right? We all want to see that. But when the government is
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spending so much of their efforts and using so many police resources, as we just heard in the INN
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Committee many times, Jamie, is that the resources, police already are lacking the resources to tackle
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crime, and they're going to be asked now to use their resources to go after law-abiding firearms
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owners' firearms. It's ridiculous. It's backwards, and we wish the government would focus on what
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the real problem is, and that's illegal firearms getting in the hands of criminals and killing kids
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Yeah, exactly. Well, I find it also interesting that the crowd that doesn't seem to like the police
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very much now wants them to carry out their bidding in terms of, yeah, going out to law-abiding
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firearms. So let's hit the other headline here, because the program did go ahead as a pilot in
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Yeah. So tell us about these. How many firearms did they get? What was the cost? Tell us that.
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So this is right from CBC. Cape Breton Police prepared to start firearm buyback pilot project
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program, and it went on to actually announce what it was going to fund this. So the federal
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government, this is right from the article, the federal government is paying the Cape Breton Police
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Service $103,000 to administer the pilot project. Now, that's what they're paying. We don't know what
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the final number is. And what we found out was they only collected 22 firearms, and we just did the math.
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Per firearm, that's $4,681 per firearm collected.
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Any community better off in terms of avoiding shootings or gang activity.
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And I've actually argued it makes us more unsafe, because that same police force that really should
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be tackling crime is now distracted by this new program that they're being directed to perform,
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and this gun confiscation by the Prime Minister Mark Carney.
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So it actually, I think, in many ways makes us more unsafe.
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Let's queue up cut one here. We have, of course, the Public Safety Minister talking about
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how the program is apparently voluntary. Apparently.
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During the election campaign, we committed to moving ahead with implementing an efficient
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gun buyback program for assault-style firearms, such as the AR-15s. Today, we're here to talk about
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our government's next steps in making good on that promise to Canadians. The assault-style firearms
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compensation program provides a way for firearm owners to safely dispose of and or deactivate
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their assault-style firearm and receive compensation in return. This program is voluntary. Nobody's having
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Does anyone believe that? You're told to bring it in. If you don't, some things might happen,
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Right. Well, we had the ministering committee, and we asked them that exact question, or I did.
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And I asked about, you know, whether this program is voluntary. And it's only voluntary
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if you stop to give the firearm back or you have to decommission it, but you have to do it. I said,
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well, voluntary actually means that what if you choose not to?
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That's what really voluntary means. So we all know this isn't voluntary. It's a gun
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confiscation scheme by the federal government. And just because they call it voluntary doesn't make
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No, exactly. And that's the key of it all, right? We're still waiting for the outcome. What
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is the outcome? Safer streets? Probably not. You know, like, here's, let's cut two. We have
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another cut, again, with the public safety minister going on about the voluntary program.
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For a gun backpack, sir, is there a next step for you if this government does not engage
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or walks away from anybody? We will continue to work with all the provinces and territories,
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as well as law enforcement, to ensure that the compensation program is implemented in an equitable
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way. For any jurisdictions that are preventing the compensation program to move forward, they're
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really hurting their own citizens. As you're aware, there are funds available as part of the
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program for individual firearms owners who have prohibited weapons from getting compensation. So
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if they're disallowing their citizens to attain that compensation, they're really hurting their own
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people. So in this clip, the public safety minister was talking about the reluctance of some
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provinces to jump on board this problem, this, this, the federal scheme to disarm law-abiding
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firearms owners. And, and the provinces, some of them have said, no, we're not right. We got better
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things to do, basically is what they said, right? To your point earlier. Yeah. So I find it interesting
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use of language by the public safety minister about hurting its own citizens. Right. How?
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Yeah. Well, it's quite the opposite because we heard even just at I-9 committee for the last,
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I think several weeks. And we asked, uh, various police chiefs, various of first nations, uh,
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communities, um, and chiefs of first nation communities. And, and without almost exception,
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I think there was one chief that said otherwise was that they do not want to waste police resources
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that are already very sparse. They're already not dealing with the crimes in community. Now they do
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not want to use those sparse resources to go after law abiding first nations and Inuit firearms owners.
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And some are saying we're not going to do it. And you've seen even the past, uh, a couple of weeks
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and months where Saskatchewan has said, we're not going to do it, participate in the federal program.
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Alberta has said the same. And I think Ontario has given signals to that effect as well. And, and I think
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the, the bottom line of it all is because it's not going to work and that's what they see. It just isn't
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going to work. So why would they spend those resources on something that isn't going to work?
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Exactly. Doesn't make sense. No, it doesn't. Especially when recruitment's down for policing,
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to your point earlier, they're, they're having a tough time filling the, responding to the calls
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that need to be responded. They don't need to be creating more work that will solve no crime,
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that will solve the, the, the, the increase in gang activity, et cetera, et cetera. So cue up cut three.
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Now we have a liberal MP. She does have some provost. Yeah. That's her. Okay.
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Yeah. She does have some personal trauma. Um, so she, she's not a huge fan of firearms in general.
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Right. Um, so, but, but her response to this question was very interesting play cut three.
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All of the people in possession of, uh, of one of the weapon that has been banned since 2020,
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and will not participate in the compensation program will, will have an illegal gun in its position.
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And that's a criminal act. All right. Thank you very much.
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So that's what I find, find interesting. So right now we have these illegal firearms that are smuggled
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across the border that are making their way into the hands of criminals and they're using them. And
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there's lots of video evidence to show the shootings that are going up. And it's quite scary considering
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this never used to be a massive issue. Um, so now she's saying we will buy back, confiscate
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these firearms that are on the list and, and anyone that doesn't comply will then have an illegal firearm.
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So like she's making more criminals, the government's making more criminals of law abiding
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citizens. Are they actually going to act on that as well? Maybe they'll probably act on that and just
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ignore the, the, the, the criminals that are rampaging our communities.
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Well, I'll ask you a question, Jamie, what she just said there, does it sound like a voluntary
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Yeah, that's right. If you don't, that's true. That's actually a good point. If you don't do it,
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Right. And the minister just said in the previous clips that it was, uh, it was a voluntary program.
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And she, uh, said quite the opposite. And I think we all know what the government's intent is
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and it really isn't a voluntary program, but they're trying. And again, uh, the pushback is, uh,
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warranted by, uh, provincial governments. They're seeing that it just isn't going to work. And
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again, we we've seen it firsthand from, uh, you know, from police forces across the country that
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have really said, look, um, we'd rather go after the bad guys instead of the good guys. Again,
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we've just said statistically that, uh, a licensed firearms holder in Canada is safer than the average
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Canadian. So why would then resources be spent to take away those, uh, law abiding Canadians firearms?
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It doesn't make sense. No. And I think, uh, a good point of that is, uh, your writing and my writing,
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right? I would say there are a very high number of legal, responsible, licensed, trained firearms
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owners. And our writings would be a, you know, a war zone. Right. If, if your true stats were untrue,
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right? Like, right. And what's happening, we're actually seeing this because of the rise in crime.
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It's the criminals now are, we're seeing set up shop because of other issues around
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safe supply and other drug issues and, and, uh, this, uh, revolving door of, uh, you know, uh,
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bail, not, uh, jail. Uh, we're seeing crime increase, but it's not from legal firearms. It's,
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it's, it's all from the illegal criminal activity. That's right. Let's, let's address the real issue
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is the criminal not come up with some scheme to give the illusion. They're actually doing something,
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but really nothing's going to change while wasting billions in the process. Right. And
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we know, uh, you know, the term that, that I created was grandpa Joe. And, uh, you know,
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this is somebody that everybody has a grandpa that's hunted maybe as a firearm. They might
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not have one themselves, but they don't want grandpa Joe or, or, uh, you know, you know,
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grandma Jane to be affected by this particular law to take away their farms. They've been the greatest
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citizens, taxpayers for many years. All they want to do is be able to go and hunt once a year and
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and keep their firearms. But this government wants to take their farms away. And it's sad.
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It is very sad, especially if you go two steps ahead too, right? Like there are people hunting,
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groceries are insanely expensive. Like I believe, uh, this is in 2026, people will be paying $900
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above and beyond what they paid last year. That's above what they pay. It's all compounded, right?
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So you're talking thousands in the last few years in grocery. So if someone wants to go hunt to fill
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their freezer and hopefully get them through the season or reduce the grocery bill, you're getting
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that taken away from you. Absolutely. And then it goes to dependence on government.
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Right. And it's even more accentuated in the north because food is so expensive in the territories.
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And, uh, and, and, and people that live in the territories really rely on hunting for sustenance
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and to provide food for their families. And, uh, this is exceptionally, uh, damaging for northerners.
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It's absolutely. And, and of course the government loves it when you're dependent on that, right?
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Instead of looking after yourself, the personal responsibility, which we all enjoyed, we all
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love and conservatives like to, to promote, um, they're basically taking away another level
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of that independence and say, don't worry, government will take care of you.
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Well, and, and I'll speak to this is, uh, I went up to Cambridge Bay, which is in, in Nunavut.
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Uh, it's on the Northwest Passage and, uh, you know, met with this group, Canadian Rangers,
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Inuit, uh, uh, people, just great individuals, uh, these beautiful smiles.
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And I thought, well, the first issue might be something else around national security, maybe.
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And that was an issue later on. Their number one issue when we spoke was they were concerned
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that the federal government was going to take away their, their law, their lawfully obtained firearms,
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and namely the SKS, which is, uh, is all across the North because it's, it's fairly inexpensive
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to buy. And the ammunition is, is, uh, pretty cheap to buy as well. And they use it for hunting
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all the time. And so that was the first issue they came to me with concerns around it and warranted as
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well, because the government really does want to come and take away their hunting firearms.
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We're pretty much out of time, but as you know, the guests get the last word, maybe you can talk
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about whatever you want, but maybe you can maybe highlight some of the things that we as conservatives,
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not only proposed in the last election, but based on the advancements in the liberal agenda,
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what we're, we're hoping to do to combat what the liberals are up to.
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Sure. So I'll maybe say this, uh, we had the parliamentary budget officer just at INE committee
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and I'd asked him a question around firearms, what the total cost of this confiscation plan is going
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to be. And he said it hadn't been fully costed. He hadn't seen a number where it actually was a total,
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but this is again from, uh, Gary Mauser. The federal government recently said the program's
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administrative costs, safe storage, destruction of hundreds of thousands of firearms, et cetera,
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would reach an estimated $1.8 billion. That's 1.8 billion with a B. This is Gary Mauser's,
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my estimate based on the similar program in New, my estimate based on a similar program in New Zealand
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in 2019 is closer to $6 billion just for collection and compensation. So this thing without any other
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numbers to prove that it's going to be otherwise, uh, and you know how things in Ottawa usually are
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bigger than what they say. It's not a good sign of things to come and it's not, we don't believe a
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good use of taxpayer monies to go after the wrong people. Again, we want to tackle, uh, criminals
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and again, that's our focus. And thankfully we have, we've got a great leader that wants to really
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tackle what the real issue is. And that's, uh, criminals getting their hands on illegal guns and,
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uh, you know, hurting our kids. So I appreciate the opportunity again, Jamie, appreciate your support
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for the law abiding firearms community. And, uh, we'll just keep going. I really appreciate coming
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on. Someday I'd love to get you here on a different topic. If the liberals would just
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come to their senses, maybe we won't have to keep re-litigating this over and over again.
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Well, we hope they do. Yeah, absolutely. Bob Zimmer, thanks for coming on.
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Thanks for having me. Thank you for your time. Member of Parliament for
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Prince George, Peace River in Northern Rockies. Also the co-chair
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for the all-party Parliamentary Outdoor Caucus. Thank you for his time. Thank you for yours.
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Don't forget we will have new content every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern time. If you're a firearms
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owner, you know someone who is, please like, comment, subscribe, and share this program
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It's all out there. It's even on YouTube as well. Until next week, remember low taxes,
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less government, more freedom. That's the blueprint.