On Parliament Hill

Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party are once again targeting law-abiding farmers and duck hunters with their new firearms legislation – Bill C-71.

Conservatives recognize that the safety of Canadians must be the number one priority of any government and we will always support legislation related to firearms that will help keep Canadians safe. However, Bill C-71 does very little to protect public safety.

This bill adds greater costs and regulatory burdens to law-abiding firearms owners but it has no measures to combat the increasing rates of gun related homicide, domestic violence, gang violence, or to address the increasing rates of rural crime here in southeast Manitoba and across the country.

This bill is nothing more than a backdoor attempt to bring back the wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry. Justin Trudeau claims: “We committed to not restore a long-gun registry and we’re not restoring a long-gun registry, it’s that simple.”

But Mr. Trudeau, when the government is using a federal registrar to keep records on law-abiding firearm owners, that’s a gun registry. It’s that simple.

In fact the bill uses the words “registrar” or “reference number” 28 times. The words “gang” or “criminal organization” appear zero times.

93% of gun crimes that result in death are committed with illegal guns by people who should not have them.

Nobody knows better than hunters and farmers the importance of gun safety and the social responsibility that comes with owning a firearm. The Liberals need to stop focusing their fire on law-abiding farmers and hunters and focus it on felons, gangs and the flow of illegal guns across the US border.

The Liberals are proving, yet again, that when it comes to firearms legislation they cannot be trusted, and treating law-abiding citizens like criminals is always bad public policy.

Conservatives will continue to fight for concrete actions to keep Canadians safe and focus our efforts on the criminal element behind firearms violence.