O’Toole Pitches Most-Detailed Gun Policies for Conservative Leadership

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TheGunBlog.ca — Erin O’Toole proposed the most-detailed and comprehensive gun policies today of any of the four candidates running to lead the Conservative Party of Canada.

The military veteran outlined plans for both a role in opposition and in case he is elected prime minister in the next general election. See platform below.

“An O’Toole government will update Canada’s firearms legislation to ensure that it is evidence-based and focuses on keeping Canadians safe, not demonizing those Canadians the Liberals do not like,” said the platform, titled “Our Country: A Call to Take Back Canada.”

Why It Matters

  • O’Toole has been a strong defender of Canada’s roughly 3 million gun owners for years.
  • All four Conservative leadership candidates have outlined measures to protect safe and responsible hunters, farmers and sport shooters. All other major parties favour prohibitions and confiscations.
  • Gun policies are only one of many important considerations for a future Conservative leader or prime minister.
  • Today is the last day to submit a video question for next week’s candidate debates.

O’Toole’s proposed gun policies:

Tackling Violent Crime Instead of Demonizing Legal Gun Owners

Source: ErinOToole.ca

Canada is a nation with proud rural and outdoor traditions. Learning to hunt or target shoot with a family member is a way of life for millions of Canadians and must be respected. Firearm owners, be they hunters, farmers or sport shooters are among the most law-abiding citizens in Canada.

AN O’TOOLE-LED OPPOSITION WILL:

  • Oppose efforts to reverse the former Conservative government’s policy advances on firearms, including the Trudeau government’s new proposals to confiscate legal firearms.
  • Oppose regulations that do not advance public safety and instead penalize law abiding firearms owners. This includes the arbitrary reclassification of firearms and magazines.

An O’Toole government will update Canada’s firearms legislation to ensure that it is evidence-based and focuses on keeping Canadians safe, not demonizing those Canadians the Liberals do not like.

THE PROPOSED LEGISLATIVE CHANGES WILL:

  • Conduct a review of the Firearms Act with participation of law enforcement, firearms owners, manufacturers, and members of the public, and then update legislation by introducing a simplified classification system and codifying it in law, so that it is clear what types of firearms fit into each category and classification decisions can therefore be made quickly, and with the public and firearms owners having confidence that they are not arbitrary. The legislation will also – for the first time – contain definitions of currently ambiguous issues like the term “variant”.
  • Harmonize rules for discharging firearms on your own property so that restricted firearms are treated the same as non-restricted, where the local municipality allows the discharge of firearms.
  • Mandate a return to the 180-day period for the re-designed classification system to release firearm import decisions and put final authority for classification decisions back in the hands of cabinet.
  • Focus the resources of the federal government on criminals engaged in the trafficking and use of illegal firearms instead of imposing more layers of bureaucracy on law-abiding Canadians.
  • Amend firearms laws to ensure that no administrative expiry could lead to criminal charges or the seizure of a licence holder’s firearm(s). Until an expired licence is renewed, it would remain illegal for licence holders to acquire new firearms or ammunition.
  • Support specialized illegal firearms enforcement led by the CBSA and RCMP working closely with American authorities in the United States, to target smuggling operations before illegal firearms reach the border.
  • Develop a suicide prevention strategy that encourages people – including legal firearms owners – to seek help when they need it. The current system actually discourages firearms owners from seeking help, due to the fear that the police will show up at their door, and the Trudeau government is making this worse, putting lives at risk.

Source: Erin O’Toole, 2020 Leadership Platform (PDF), 10 June 2020

Conservative Leadership Candidate Proposals for Gun Owners

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