THUNDER BAY — Plans for a federal gun buy-back program continues to draw opposition from a regional member of parliament.
In late April, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino provided an update on the Liberal government’s gun-buy-back program during a press conference.
Mendicino announced that the first phase of the program would be to work with businesses and retailers that are still currently holding prohibited inventory. The next step would be buying back prohibited weapons from individual owners.
Kenora Conservative MP Eric Melillo said that the government's proposed gun-buy-back program falls short of addressing the real issue.
“My concern with this policy is the Liberals are spending a lot of resources, diverting resources away from law enforcement and other more useful areas and they are going are confiscating, or as they say “buying back,” firearms that are lawfully owned,” Melillo said last week.
In a release, Melillo stated that the program will target “hunting rifles and shotguns from law-abiding hunters, sport shooters, and Indigenous peoples.”
The government is also diverting away from law-enforcement agencies, according to Melillo.
Thunder Bay-Rainy River Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski said there are more details about the program yet to be revealed.
Much of the key elements in the buy-back program are about the seizure of assault-style weapons which includes surrendering assault-style weapons to the government for compensation.
“I think they tried to simplify it a fair bit,” said Powlowski.
Powlowski said the government is still in the process of consulting with Indigenous people, hunting associations, recreational gun enthusiasts, and farmers to work out the details of the types of guns that need to be banned.
“The intention is to ban assault-style guns. Guns that are basically designed for warfare, that you can kill as many people as you could, quickly, which is what you want to do in a war,” Powlowski said.
He said the government does not want to go after traditional firearms used in sport shooting and hunting.
"Our government doesn’t want to do that, but I think getting this legislation right means making it harder to get those [assault-style weapons],” Powlowski said
