New gun legislation facing harsh criticism from Dunmore gun club owner

Rocky Rutledge, owner of the Canadian Gunhub in Dunmore, says his business will be hurt by the new legislation.

“It’s definitely not going to be good for us,” Rutledge says. “Half of our gun sales are handguns, range sales involve handguns because you have to have a range membership to own a handgun, so stopping handgun sales and handgun ownership will probably be pretty bad for us.”

Bill C-21 includes other measures such as increasing prison time for firearms smuggling and trafficking, and expanded licence revocation in cases of domestic violence and criminal harassment.

The bill was introduced in the wake of several mass shootings in the United States, the most recent resulting in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas.

Marco Mendicino, minister of public safety, said the legislation is the next step in the fight toward ending gun violence.

“It’s a battle that has claimed too many lives and left empty chairs at the dinner table and empty desks in our classrooms,” Mendicino said.

The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights says the government needs to focus on cracking down on violence instead of freezing the sale of handguns.

“Targeting handgun shooters, some of the most tightly regulated Canadians that we have is just, it’s political, it’s not public safety-oriented,” says Rod Giltaca, executive director of the CCFR.

Giltaca says the government should be cracking down on violence and criminals in society.

“Right now, we have a violence problem, and it’s a violence problem with or without firearms,” Giltaca says. “If we’re able to cut down on violence, then firearm-related violence would go down as well. But these are difficult things to do, and they take more than four or three or two years in an election cycle.”

Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner MP Glen Motz agrees. Motz believes the focus of the bill should be on illegal activity instead of on restricting gun ownership.

“Some of the measures that are being looked at here are targeting again, law-abiding Canadians,” Motz says. “They’re missing criminals. The criminals aren’t lining up at gun stores to buy firearms, they’re not lining up at the chief firearms office to get their licence, you know, they’re not. This is a problem.”

In a statement, Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro says the bill is an unnecessary and expensive overreach.

“Federal Bill C-21 represents a major infringement on the property rights of law-abiding Albertans. It fails to address the substantive issues at the root of violent gun crime and does not take meaningful steps to help protect Canadians. The money being spent on this misstep could be used in so many better ways that could actually help keep Albertans safe.” the statement reads.

For Rutledge, he believes if the bill is passed, it will end up negatively affecting the industry as a whole.

“The handgun world, it’s a multi-billion-dollar industry,” Rutledge says. “There are millions of handguns across Canada, and there’s millions of handgun owners. It’s going to affect people in a very negative way, and not do anything positive for safety in our communities. It’s going to cost taxpayers a lot of money, completely unnecessarily, that could better be spent elsewhere.”

CHAT News did reach out to gun control advocates, but none were available for comment.

by Gates Guarin

New gun legislation facing harsh criticism from Dunmore gun club owner

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