Canadian Handgun Sales Skyrocket Following Trudeau’s Firearm Crackdown
Trudeau announced he would freeze sales last week
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Gun stores across Canada are reporting record sales following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s freeze on all new sales of handguns.
As Neon Nettle reported, Trudeau announced he would freeze sales and purchases of handguns in the wake of the recent shootings in the U.S.
“We need only look south of the border to know that if we do not take action firmly and rapidly, it gets worse and worse and gets more difficult to counter,” Trudeau said.
He added: “In other words, it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer, or import handguns anywhere in Canada once this Bill becomes law.”
The bill, C-21, needs to be passed by the House of Commons and the Senate, and is expected to become law by fall.
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Owners of gun stores are reporting a surge in sales, as customers who have obtained their licenses rush to buy guns before the law is enacted.
“We thought there would be a bit of a run on handguns but we didn’t expect this,” said J.R. Cox, who owns and operates The Shooting Edge ranges in Calgary and Toronto.
“All the stores in Calgary were just crazy,” he told Global News.
Several gun stores in British Columbia province saw lines out the door within hours of Trudeau’s announcement.
“You get a lot of people that as soon as they announce new gun control measures, everyone wants to go in and buy a gun,” said Dan Shemley, warehouse manager of Great North Precision Canada, which sells firearms in Kelowna, B.C.
Shemley, told CBC’s news show Daybreak South that handgun sales make up roughly 10 to 15 percent of the store’s business, but the store was now ‘chaotic’ with licensed firearm operators racing to get what’s left in stock.
Other shops across Canada said they sold out within days.
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“Sales have been brisk,” said Jen Lavigne, co-owner of That Hunting Store in a strip mall on the outskirts of the capital Ottawa, nestled between a barbershop, a Chinese buffet restaurant, and a conservative lawmaker’s constituency office.
“We sold 100 handguns, or almost our entire stock, in the last three days, since the prime minister announced the freeze,” she said, showing off her nearly empty handgun cabinet.
Josko Kovic, the owner of DoubleTap Sports in Toronto, told AFP the government announcement "created a panic, and people are now rushing out to buy handguns."
“Almost all stores are sold out, including me,” he said.
According to government estimates, there are more than one million handguns in Canada, which has a population of 38 million people.
Some 2,500 stores sell pistols in the country.
At present, a person must have a restricted firearms license in order to purchase a handgun.
Most also require a special permit to transport them from any location to another, and they must be in secured cases.
