BC NDP Misleads Public on Firearms, Owners

Late last month, in the lead-up to British Columbia’s provincial election on October 19th, John Rustad stated that his Conservative Party of BC, if allowed to form government, would follow in the footsteps of various other provincial governments and refuse to dedicate provincial resources to the fulfillment of Justin Trudeau’s firearms bans; specifically the May 2020 OIC-instituted ban on 2000+ varieties of long gun, and the ban on handguns dating back to 2022 and more recently codified into law with the passage of the Liberals’ Bill C-21.

In the days since, David Eby and his BC NDP have hugely embellished this statement, claiming “Rustad's refusal to enforce bans on handguns and semi-automatic weapons would put people at greater risk,” and “under a John Rustad government, abusers, gang members, and traffickers would be allowed to carry assault weapons unchecked.”

This statement is, as all licensed gun owners know, absolutely untrue.

This claim is nothing more than a cheap attempt to leverage misinformation to sow fear among the electorate. Eby’s allegation that Rustad’s unwillingness to allocate a budget for the confiscation of licensed firearms will result in violent criminals being “allowed to carry assault weapons unchecked” conflates legal gun ownership with violent crime to an offensive degree and does so at a time when too many British Columbians have been made abundantly aware of how thin the province’s police resources are stretched.

In a recent press conference, Eby stated that Rustad’s unwillingness to spend taxpayer dollars confiscating guns owned by licensed owners would culminate in the importation of “lax, US-style handgun and semi-automatic gun rules that make us all less safe,” communicated from behind a banner that stated “stop illegal guns.” The event where this occurred was covered by the Canadian Press, which provided it with the headline “Eby supports police on guns and gangs, flanked by four law enforcement candidates.”

These comments will likely (and should) offend BC’s gun owners. Eby’s allegation that allowing British Columbians to retain firearms they’re licensed to possess is somehow analogous to gang members carrying them is, in a word, nothing short of slanderous. Licensed gun owners are among the least likely to commit crimes and their ability to retain the possession of handguns and semi-automatic firearms they bought legally does not constitute a risk to Canadian public safety.

Finally, that these claims emanate from a party whose leader is a lawyer, a former Attorney General, and once served as a professional spokesperson for civil liberties indicates that they are not the product of ignorance. Rather, it indicates the alternative: That the BC NDP has a clear, intentional, and repeated desire to incite a fear of firearms, and the nearly 400,000 British Columbians who own them.

Vote accordingly.

Editor’s note: We requested a comment from the BC NDP over 24 hours ago, asking “if the NDP would like to clarify their position to the nearly 400,000 legal firearms owners in the province who may feel as if your party views them as analogous to violent criminals.” We did not receive a response.