The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights is currently in the middle of the largest Charter challenge on behalf of gun owners in Canadian history.
The group was formed in 2015 after the federal Liberals formed government.
“We were sort of born out of the 2015 election knowing that things would go badly for gun owners under this Liberal government,” Tracey Wilson, the coalition’s vice-president of public relations, told the Evan Bray Show. “And boy, were we right.”
In 2022, the feds announced an amendment to Bill C-21, calling for a ban on some shotguns and semi-automatic rifles.
Wilson told Bray there’s a provision in the Firearms Code that says a gun cannot be banned if it’s suitable for hunting or sport-shooting purposes.
“The firearms that were banned back in May of 2020, that’s approaching over 2,000 models and variants that are legitimate for sporting purposes,” said Wilson. “We’ve been using them for decades, if not generations, safely and without issue.”
Both Saskatchewan and Alberta have joined in on the court challenge, but a hearing has yet to take place.
Wilson said that there is a lot of misinformation surrounding firearm owners and violent crimes.
“I think over 30 years, gun owners have been subjected to some really bad branding,” said Wilson. “The Liberal government and left-leaning government have successfully created a link between licensed gun owners and violent crimes.”
Wilson said there isn’t any link and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau uses terms like “assault-style weapon” or “military grade weapons” to confuse people.
“I’m a grandma from the suburbs and yes, I own two AR-15’s,” she said. “They are semi-automatic limited to five rounds and they operate exactly the same as my would-be hunting rifle.”
Wilson said this has created the narrative of “you don’t need that.”
“Yes I do,” she countered. “I’ve owned them for decades safely and without issue. And in this country, at least we should have the freedom to own the things that we want to own.”
Wilson said the onus should be on the federal government to prove why people shouldn’t be allowed to own certain weapons.
Wilson said Canada has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, and conciliation members don’t want to get rid of those restrictions. They just want government to stop piling more things on top of gun owners instead of trying to stop the root cause of gun violence.
“The last eight years focusing entirely on licensed gun owners instead of criminals, that record on public safety speaks for itself,” said Wilson.
Wilson said firearm tracing is the next big step in holding gun owners accountable as well as those who illegally move firearms.








