TheGunBlog.ca — John Rustad, the leader of the British Columbia Conservative Party and the leading candidate to win next month’s provincial election, called the federal Liberal Party’s mass firearm confiscations “overreach” and said he would refuse to support the crackdown if he becomes premier.
Details
Rustad was speaking to media on September 27, according to a video of the meeting shared by Baltej Singh Dhillon on his personal X account. Dhillon is running as a candidate for the provincial NDP against the Conservatives.
Canada’s National Firearms Association shared the same video today on X.
Rustad: No Provincial Resources for Confiscation
Rustad said:
So I think the gun laws that have been brought in by the federal government looking to take away and to seize guns from law-abiding citizens in British Columbia I think is the wrong approach, especially when you’re out in rural B.C. and with people that are there.
So from my perspective, I think that’s an overreach by government, and so I will not have any provincial resources being spent on their initiative.
If they want to go ahead, fill their boots. But that’s not something that, from a province’s perspective, that we would spend any resources doing.
Why It Matters
- Rustad as premier would join counterparts in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and other regions in either refusing to support the Liberal attacks on government-licensed firearm users, or in working to block them.
- The provincial New Democratic Party, currently in office and neck-and-neck with the Conservatives, supports the crackdown.
- The B.C. Conservatives took the lead in opinion polls this week for the first time, the Vancouver Sun reported September 25.