Privy Council Office Tells Feds That Public Isn't Convinced By Handgun Control Plans

The federal government's anti-gun agenda just got an internal wakeup call, says Blacklock's Reporter. According to a write-up in the independent, reader-funded publication that is "minding Ottawa's business," the Privy Council Office in-house research team has found the Canadian public is not convinced the Trudeau government's plans for handgun control will keep them safe.

Ever since the fall election of 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government have targeted legal handgun ownership. The Liberals opened the door to municipal handgun bans and when that, along with news of other impending control, resulted in a buying surge, the Liberal government banned handgun imports in August of 2022. Then, in late October of 2022, the feds also banned the transfer of handguns between almost all private owners.

This came with pushback not just from gun owners, the most obvious sector of opposition, but also municipal governments and even the law enforcement community.

The Trudeau government has moved forward anyway, but now it appears the move to crack down on handguns is not convincing the public that safer neighbourhoods will result.

Now, Blacklock's says this is the finding of Privy Council Office's own in-house research (through an ongoing survey called Continuous Qualitative Data Collection of Canadians' Views). Somehow, Blacklock's has its hands on the survey from October, 2022, which has not yet been published to government websites. Blacklock's says "Focus group respondents questioned the point of the freeze if handguns used in the commission of crimes are smuggled from the United States: 'It was largely felt the majority of handgun related crimes were caused by those who had obtained their firearms illegally.'"

In other words, despite years of government hype aimed at convincing Canadians their law-abiding neighbours are the problem, the public is starting to realize otherwise, particularly as headline after headline emphasizes the fact that gangsters are sourcing their firearms from cross-border smuggling.

You can read the whole Blacklock's story here, but there's a paywall (consider subscribing; independent, adversarial voices are a rare thing in Canadian political commentary these days).

What does it mean for handgun owners?

Does that mean handgun control isn't the political coup that the Liberals counted on? Perhaps. With an election looming on the horizon, these things matter, a lot—but don't expect the Liberals to walk back their plans, even if their own advisers suggest the public doesn't have confidence in their program. The current federal government has reinforced its plans to restrict firearms in the face of all opposition so far, and this research is not likely to change the mind of anyone in cabinet.