Some pistols displayed in a case at TnT Gun Works. (Logan Stein/980 CJME)

By Logan Stein/CJME News

New gun law has Sask. gun owners feeling targeted

Feb 18, 2021 | 12:59 PM

A new bill by the Trudeau government has gun owners feeling frustrated.

On Tuesday, the Liberal government introduced a bill allowing owners of banned assault-style guns to give them up voluntarily for cash–or keep them on strict conditions.

Previously, the buyback program was looked at as being mandatory. Now, the prime minister says a buyback program for the certain prohibited models will be optional.

The government outlawed nearly 1,500 models of assault-style weapons back in May. These guns could no longer be used or sold legally throughout Canada.

Owner of TnT Gun Works in Regina, Daryl Schemenauer, says the Liberal government’s new bill paints legal gun owners in a bad light.

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“It’s extremely frustrating, a lot of this is not going to do anything to stop a crime,” Schemenauer said. “The firearms that have been put on hold here have not been the gun of choice for the criminals out there.

“It’s not the gun that’s the problem, it’s people that have been the problem.”

Schemenauer says his store has thousands of dollars in guns that can no longer be purchased, with no word on when he would get money for them or if he will get the right amount.

“Nobody I have spoken with has been happy about it, it’s your own private property, you’re using it for useful purposes like hunting and the people that are doing this have licences, they’ve done their courses,” he said. “These aren’t the people that are the problem.

“We’re still kind of waiting to see what happens, we have lots of inventory that we can’t do anything with because they’re holding our inventory hostage in a way, they’re not telling us what we can do.”

Gil White, the firearms chair for the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, echoed Schemnauer’s statement.

“Let’s make some real concrete rules and laws that are going to have an effect. Not every time something goes wrong, you go after the legal firearms owner because it’s an easy target,” White said.

“It’s frustrating that they are going after the legal gun owners.

“None of these decisions are being done with facts, just emotions.”

White went on to say that he doesn’t believe the Trudeau government is listening to enough people about how the regulations would be made.

“We need a government in power that’s going to not just look at one side, but look at all sides, and sit with the people that have knowledge about firearms to help create some of these rules and regulations that they want,” he said. “Let’s work together and fight crime, not the people that aren’t committing crimes.”

Gun owners choosing to keep their outlawed models may do so, but they won’t be able to use them or allow anyone else to have access to them.

The newly tabled bill by the federal government would also allow cities across the country to ban handguns — except for in Saskatchewan.

Premier Scott Moe said on Wednesday that the province had already passed legislation to restrict municipalities from passing bylaws banning handgun ownership.

“The federal government should be targeting the real problem: crimes involving stolen, smuggled and illegal guns. They should not be penalizing law-abiding firearms owners,” Moe wrote on Twitter.