Today in the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU), the Liberal government asked for unanimous consent to withdraw the controversial amendments (G4, G46) from Bill C21.
G4 was the amendment that defined what assault *style* firearms are, even though that's a manufactured term with no real meaning. The amendment equated to a sweeping semi-auto gun ban. Amendment G46 was "the list" - over 300 pages of guns being added to the ban, or previously banned through regulation. They were hoping to codify these long gun bans in legislation, making it very difficult for a future government to reverse.
The shocking withdrawal came after massive push back from the CCFR and our members, hunters, hunting groups and their members, The Assembly of First Nations, sport shooters and even NDP and Liberal Members of Parliament. While the House of Commons is typically quiet over the winter break with MP's heading back to their constituency offices for local matters, MP's from all parties seemed to keep the debate on these amendments alive.
While this is, in general, good news for licensed gun owners across the country - this is not a win in the sense of the battle being over. In fact, far from it. It is imperative we continue to push with the same vigour and force to ensure C21 is scrapped in its entirety. Don't forget there is still the airsoft ban, the handgun freeze and a variety of other measures still within C21 itself.
While we regroup and focus our efforts on scrapping the rest of C21 and working on our federal court challenge against the 2020 gun ban, we want to thank everyone who helped write letters to their MP's, engaged on social media and helped fight this amendment. We MUST maintain this level of unity because they will never stop banning guns from legal owners.
Stay tuned for more on this evolving story. #ScrapC21