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“We’ve run out of almost all the weapons we have in two days.”
James Bachynsky, owner of the Calgary Shooting Center, is shown behind empty boxes that would normally display pistols on Friday, June 3, 2022. Photo by Gavin Young / Postmedia
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A gun-related federal bill has sparked a gun-buying rage, Calgary firearms store operators say.
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This week’s announcement by the Liberal government of an indefinite freeze on the sale, import and transfer of handguns has led to a rapid depletion of arms stocks.
“We’ve run out of almost all the weapons we have in two days. We had three revolvers left yesterday,” said Cindy Leedahl, a ProLine Shooters employee on 9th Avenue SE.
Staff had to scour the store’s storage area to find stock to offer to impatient shoppers.
Many of these customers were planning to buy a gun at some point, but were now prompted to make the purchase because of the proposed legislation limiting the number of legally owned guns in Canada, Leedahl said.
“They feel that their rights are being deprived; there are a lot of angry people. “
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While increased sales are an advantage for now, they could be the last guns the store sells, he said.
“Most distributors are out of supply,” he said, adding that if passed, the legislation will have a permanent impact on the business.
“It achieves absolutely nothing but getting people out of business; it will effectively put a lot of people out of work. “
Last month, the owner of another Calgary gun shop said the legislation was intended to increase background checks and ban what Ottawa believes a wide range of assault firearms caused. sudden sales.
Gun dealers in other provinces report rapid gun sales ahead of planned legislation, which was debated in the House of Commons on Friday.
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James Bachynsky said none of this is surprising and has been seen before during the previous tightening of arms control measures, especially in the 1990s.
“(Customers) are reacting as fast as they can. It’s true it’s a panic,” said Bachynsky, president of the Calgary Shooting Center.
“It’s a race against time to get those shipments in and out the door.”
The period before the legislation became law, he said, “is giving us a chance to sell the inventory and it’s being sold.”
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These sales are rising despite persistent fears that the new legislation will be just a precursor to Ottawa’s arms confiscation, he said.
Bill C-21 also promises to force assault gun owners to sell them to the government through a mandatory repurchase program later this year.
“People take risks, they’re not happy and they say, ‘I need a gun, what do you have?’ Bachynsky said.
He agreed with Leedahl that the immediate increase in sales will be a cold comfort for a business that will eventually be hampered.
“Everything is a short-term benefit for long-term pain,” he said, adding that the shooting range of his business will also gradually decrease.
Bachynsky said the federal government could have approached the arms freeze differently if it had first banned arms imports.
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And he said banning the law from transferring handguns would ultimately render them worthless, leading their owners to neglect to protect them, making them more vulnerable to theft.
“People will be careless, they won’t mind keeping them safe,” Bachynsky said.
The federal government and gun control advocates say the measures will eventually reduce the number of firearms in circulation and reduce accidents and their use in domestic violence.
But critics, including Bachynsky and Leedahl, say the laws will have no impact on the main abuse of handguns: their use by criminals who obtain them illegally with many of these smuggled weapons. USA.
“It will make the black market more attractive and (the weapons) more valuable,” Leedahl said.
The government also wants to increase the maximum prison sentences for arms trafficking or arms trafficking to 14 years out of 10 years.
Owners of handguns and those who sell them say that the legal requirements for owning and using weapons are already extremely strict with mandatory training, strict storage laws, and their limited transportation between home and shooting range.
“You need a temporary permit to transport them to any other place, such as a police station,” Leedahl said.
BKaufmann@postmedia.com
Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn
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