FRUSTATED: Gun owners 5,000 strong at Ottawa rally, now launch lawsuit against gov’t

OTTAWA — About 5,000 supporters of Canada’s largest gun ownership lobby group, the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, marched through downtown Ottawa last month, drawing attention to its lawsuit against the federal Liberal government.
The Saturday, Sept. 12 march attracted hunters and recreational gun owners from across the country. Their Signs told a big part of the story: “Stop lying to Canadians,” many signs read. Others cried “Trudeau for Treason” and “Blaming gun owners is lazy and dishonest.”
Filed in May, the coalition’s lawsuit calls the new ban unconstitutional. The 30,000-member lobby expects the lawsuit will cost more than $1.5 million and could take one to four years to fight, the coalition’s CEO Rod Giltaca told Farmers Forum.
As it stands, the ban limits muzzle energy (to 10,000 joules) and bore diameter (to a maximum of 20 mm) guns, meaning a prohibition on anything larger than a 10-gauge shotgun, Giltaca said.
While the ban will include about 87,000 AR-15s, there will be another 250,000 guns (semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, bolt action rifles and manually operated – pump action and break-action — shotguns out there and you are likely only going to see about 20 per cent of those guns handed over, he said. “New Zealand did the same and got 30 per cent of the guns.”
While some gun owners argue that banning the larger guns is acceptable, Giltaca argues otherwise. “If you think this will stop short of the gun you are using, you are likely wrong.”
Giltaca figures the federal government will lose in court because it cannot prove that banning guns owned by licensed gun owners will prevent the 190 firearm-related homicides each year in Canada. He does favour gun restrictions for the mentally ill and criminals. “We’re not against licensing. Make it difficult for criminals to have guns. But prove that licensed gun owners represent a disproportionate risk to public safety.”
He says the issue is about property rights. “Can the Canadian government seize property from anyone, anytime for any reason?”
The recent ban comes on the heals of the Nova Scotia massacre in April in which a drug smuggler went on a murderous rampage and killed 22 people. Giltaca argues a gun ban would not have stopped the killer because he smuggled his guns from the United States. Gun bans don’t stop criminals from getting guns, he said.
The coalition’s lawyer Michael Loberg argues that their lawsuit “is about a great deal more than firearm rights. This is about the type of country we want Canada to be, and the type of people that Canadians are. I firmly believe that Canadians are inherently just, and that given an opportunity for a dispassionate assessment they do believe in liberty and freedom for everyone, including gun owners, and they would not accept punishing a group of innocent, law-abiding people for the actions of a few criminals.”
You can find the coalition’s 44-minute documentary Broken Trust on Youtube. They are currently working on a four-part series called Gun Ban Canada Exposed.