OTTAWA – Senior Liberal government representatives last week said new restrictions on gun ownership are being considered.
Rural MPs from all parties quickly said there would be a rural, non-partisan political uprising if more strict gun controls are proposed by the government.
“I perceive there are a lot of people out there unhappy with the paperwork rigmarole now,” said southern Saskatchewan Liberal Bernie Collins (Souris-Moose Mountain). “I’m confident the minister will be willing to listen to all points of view on this. If it comes to a vote, I would hope there will be a free vote.”
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Collins said he would vote against tighter gun control rules.
Rural Reform MPs also promised a fight.
“The man (justice minister Allan Rock) basically wants to ban guns,” said Wild Rose, Alta. MP Myron Thompson. “He has that focus. I don’t.”
Added Skeena MP Mike Scott: “He wants to take the guns away. That’s what he’s really talking about. He’s not in the real world.”
The minister started the ruckus by musing inside and outside the House of Commons about the possibility of introducing tougher gun control laws to fight what some Canadians see as a growing crime wave.
Rock told reporters that he came to Parliament Hill from Toronto last November “with the firm belief that the only people in this country who should have guns are police officers and soldiers.”
Since then, he has talked with MPs who insist that in rural Canada, different rules must apply, “that farmers should have the right to own guns for pest control.”
He said his eyes had been “opened to a variety of perspectives.”
Still, the department is investigating a variety of gun control options, including banning hand guns from cities.
“For the next few weeks, the minister of justice and the department will be studying very closely the possibility of making changes to the gun control laws,” Rock’s parliamentary secretary Russell MacLellan told the Commons April 13.
Rural residents are still getting used to the tighter controls on storage and use imposed last year by the previous Conservative government, passed over the objections of many rural Conservative MPs.
