'Focus on bad guys': Albertans react to expansion of federal gun ban

A local gun store owner says the new federal gun ban has left the industry shell-shocked.

On Thursday, the Canadian government added 324 semi-automatic firearms to a growing list, saying "firearms designed for the battlefield plainly do not belong in our communities."

All guns included in the new ban are all classified as assault-style weapons by Public Safety Canada. But local gun store owner Chris Gubersky said they're "modern sporting rifles."

"There's nothing scary about them," he said, "as long as everyone's trained how to use them and vetted so they can have them."

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Gubersky sells hundreds of models that have now been banned by the federal government, leaving him scrambling to cancel orders with customers and distributors. The uncertainty is also a factor, as any future bans are likely to further impact his store shelves.

"It's just dead inventory," he said. "I'm sitting on items that I paid for that I cannot sell, I cannot transfer, I cannot do anything with."

While Gubersky said he wasn't aware the buyback program was up and running, the Canadian government's website shows eligible businesses can now apply. 

It is not yet open for individuals. Because banned guns are illegal to use, export or transport, owners must store them securely until the program is up and running.

More details on buyback amounts for individual gun owners is expected to be released in January.

Provincial reaction

Groups in favour of stronger gun control have praised the ban, while others – including Alberta's justice minister – have framed the move as an attack on law-abiding Canadians.

"Instead of choosing to commit scarce resources to addressing criminal usage of firearms … the federal government has chosen to focus its attention once again on undermining law-abiding firearms ownership in Alberta and across Canada," Mickey Amery said.

"It's a very disappointing development, because there is a real need to address violence of all kinds across Canada, including violence with firearms," said Teri Bryant, Alberta's Chief Firearms Officer.

"This announcement, really, I think, misses the mark."

Bryant explains that some guns on the new list are used legally in Alberta in sporting competitions and for wild animal control.

Gun store owner Chris Gubersky explains that the Rugen PC9 Carbine, recently banned by the Government of Canada, is a lightweight gun used by hunters. (Chelan Skulski/CTV News Edmonton)

The real threat, she said, is illegal guns.

"What we really should be focused on is things like improving border control to prevent the smuggling of firearms," she added.

"Focus on bad guys."

Since the ban on semi-automatic weapons was announced in 2020, more than 2,300 makes and models of firearm have been made illegal.

Ottawa has said the expansion was needed to improve public safety, adding there are more than 19,000 legal firearms for hunting and sport shooting.

Last year, Alberta was approved as an intervenor in six lawsuits against the gun ban. Bryant said she will be heading to Ottawa next week to support one of those legal challenges.

Gun crime on the rise

The most recent data from Statistics Canada, from 2022, shows that gun crime in Canada reached a 14-year high.

Handguns were the most often used in firearm-related homicides, with rifles and shotguns making up less than a quarter of cases. In most firearm-related homicides, the accused did not have a valid licence for the class of firearm used.

Around half the homicides involving guns were committed with a firearm that had initially been obtained legally. Of those cases involving a gun initially obtained legally, 44 per cent of the accused were the gun's legal owner. 

In homicides where the firearm was obtained illegally, eight cases involved a gun stolen from the legal owner and five cases involved a gun that had been illegally sold by the legal owner.

Criminologist Dan Jones said gun buyback programs have worked to reduce gun crime in Australia and New Zealand, but they don't work here.

"We're not an island," Jones said. "Guns come up (from the) south through the border on a regular basis."

He said buybacks in Canada and the U.S. have not proven successful in reducing crime. Instead, he would like to see the resources from the current program used to shore up efforts against the illegal gun trade – as well as addressing other root causes of crime.

"People who are going to use the guns in a violent way, the vast majority of them come from trauma backgrounds," Jones said.

"So, how about we put some of that money into counseling and therapy for individuals who are exiting jail or who are in these situations that can't afford it."

With files from CTV  News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski