TheGunBlog.ca — Canada’s governing Liberal Party said today it will delay the deadline for its forced gun confiscations ordered in May 2020 until after the next election, almost guaranteeing the crackdown will fail.
New Deadline: 30 October 2025
“The Amnesty Order will be extended until October 30, 2025,” the Liberals said today via the Department of Public Safety’s new web page for the regulatory attacks.
- Expected: The extension beyond the current deadline of 30 October 2023 was widely expected.
- Unexpected: The big surprise was the length of the delay and the almost-certain death of the confiscation effort because of it.
- Unknown: The Liberals didn’t say when they will enact the extension.
Update October 20: Deadline Officially Extended
- The Liberals officially extended the deadline on October 20 through an executive decree called an “order in council.”
- The summary says: “Order AMENDING THE ORDER DECLARING AN AMNESTY PERIOD (2020) in order to extend the Amnesty Order until October 30, 2025 to provide affected owners additional time to come into compliance with the law.”
- Source: Orders in Council, search for keyword “amnesty”
- The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR) shared a copy of the amended regulations with the new deadline.
New Optimism
- The new confiscation deadline is after the next federal election, which must be held by 20 October 2025.
- Opinion polls show the Conservative Party, which opposes the confiscations, will win the election and form government.
- The Conservatives will now face increased pressure to repeal the Liberal confiscation order and restore justice for honest citizens.
Why It Matters
The delay is fantastic for the hundreds of thousands of government-licensed gun owners and businesses targeted by the Liberal attacks.
It’s too soon to claim victory, but not too soon to see victory.
- The delay is the newest sign that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s confiscation fantasy will fail, and that the Liberals have capitulated.
- The extension provides immediate relief to hundreds of thousands of honest Canadians who would risk criminal charges, police raids and jail for keeping our blacklisted rifles and shotguns after this month.
- It shows that resistance works: The Liberals face major opposition from police, provinces and the public, and massive obstacles from legislation, logistics and lawsuits.
- After more than five years of preparations, the delay shows the Liberals are still clueless about how to execute their attacks.
Two-Phased Plan Keeps Getting Delayed
- The government’s gun-confiscation website outlines two phases for the crackdown:
- Phase 1 targets business and industry and was supposed to start last year.
- Phase 2 targets individuals, and was to start after the beginning of Phase 1.
- The Liberals today reiterated their original promise to pay a small token to confiscation victims who choose to surrender their gear.
- They had initially aimed to complete their confiscations by April 2022 at a cost of at least $1.8 billion.
Background and Context
- Trudeau’s mass-criminalization and confiscation “order in council” (OiC) of 01 May 2020 is one of the biggest crackdowns against honest citizens by any democracy in history, both by the number of people targeted and the dollar amount.
- He unilaterally declared hundreds of thousands of government-approved gun owners to be in illegal possession of many popular rifle and shotgun models, and made it a crime for anyone to buy, sell, use, or move them.
- He simultaneously offered owners a limited, partial and temporary “amnesty” to shield us from criminal charges on condition we keep our guns locked up at home in our gun safes.
- Trudeau followed up the crackdown against rifle and shotgun owners by killing the handgun market in 2022 and beginning the forced confiscation of all legally owned handguns.
- The Liberals aren’t offering any compensation to owners and businesses for damages from their 01 May 2020 criminalization order.
What’s Next
- Trudeau is planning new prohibitions and confiscations, including the so-called “Firearms Marking Regulations” that take effect December 01, plus Bill C-21, and a new OiC.
- See our Policy Summary Table (PDF) for the full list of planned legislation and regulation outlined by the Liberals.
- The free market for rifles, shotguns and handguns remains unaffected.