Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dodged questions Sunday about whether he would repeal the federal government’s handgun ban, a measure brought in to tamp down on the diversion of legal firearms into the hands of bad actors.

Poilievre hasn’t said much during this campaign about what he would do with the Liberal firearms legislation he voted against while in Parliament, but he has blasted the last government’s “assault-style” firearm buyback program as a “gun grab” that he would scrap.

Gun control advocates say any legislation to curb the flow of firearms is a worthy measure to try and reduce incidents of crime and violence. Firearms rights advocates meanwhile say the Liberal suite of policies only punish lawful gun owners who play by the rules.

  • OldTellus@lemmy.ca
    22·
    8 hours ago

    It’s insane to me that he keeps pushing for policy changes that we know either don’t work, or are fundamentally dangerous to the general public. So much of what he pushes has been done in the states for years with horrible results.

    The fact that these idiots look at them and say “lax gun laws, private healthcare, punishing prisons with a broken justice system, tax breaks for the wealthy. Seems to work in the states” fuck me, Americans have been trying to change this shit for years and he’s sprinting right towards it.

    • OminousOrange@lemmy.ca
      4·
      3 hours ago

      That’s the whole “common sense Conservatives” schtick. It effectively translates to, “just trust us, don’t look at the data, we’re definitely doing this for the good of the people and not solely those who line our pockets.”

      Their base, often with limited critical thinking ability, is happy to lap it up as it means they don’t have to use their brain.

    • StinkyFingerItchyBum@lemmy.caEnglish
      9·
      6 hours ago

      He wants to play to his base. Canadaian licensed gun owners are overwhelmingly not the problem.

      US border porosity is.

      This is a wedge issue. Cons lock up the gun vote which is larger than you think, especially in rural areas.

      The Libs lockup the antigun vote popular in urban areas and especially Québec.

      Both parties have abandoned “good government” policies, with over and under reach respectively while ignoring the real issues.

      If you want to tackle gun crime, that 2 billion Fentanyl Czar and Hellicopter patrol needs to be chasing drugs AND guns. It’s the same people, using sthe same methods. We also need to build more prisons and jails so violent offenders don’t get the “commit another crime while on bail from the last one”.

      Libs and Cons need to stop playing wedge politics and do their duty to grounded, evidence based legislation that doesn’t flip flop and turn innocent gun owners into paper criminals or wastr money buying back legally acquired guns that were never used in crimes or by criminals.

      • Arkouda@lemmy.ca
        21·
        3 hours ago

        If one isn’t afraid of being shot they have never been shot at and can thank strict gun policy for that.