(LifeSiteNews) – Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doubled down in a fight against Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government, saying her province will refuse to participate in his planned gun buyback program that aims to seize the legally purchased guns of Canadian firearm owners.
“Alberta’s government will not be cooperating with this gun grab against law-abiding firearms owners,” Smith wrote in a X post on September 23.
“We expect law enforcement to focus their time and resources on real provincial policing priorities, like policing violent criminals, not hunters and sport shooters.”
Smith said her government will use its resources to help local police forces focus on “real” policing, such as tackling rising crime.
Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery and Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis in a joint statement said the Carney Liberals’ gun buyback program is nothing more than a “confiscation scheme.”
“The Liberal government should end this program, which will waste over $700 million and counting and directly attacks firearms owners, and instead prioritize measures that will actually keep Canadians safe,” reads a portion of the statement.
Smith earlier called out the Liberals’ planned gun buyback, promising to fight its implementation in Alberta.
The Canadian government’s controversial gun grab Bill C-21, which bans many types of guns, including handguns, and mandates a buyback program, became law on December 14, 2023, after senators voted 60- 24 in favor of the bill.
In May 2023, Bill C-21 passed in the House of Commons. After initially denying that the bill would impact hunters, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau eventually admitted that C-21 would indeed ban certain types of hunting rifles.
Trudeau’s gun grab was first announced after a deadly mass shooting in Nova Scotia in May 2020, in which he banned over 1,500 “military-style assault firearms” with a plan to begin buying them back from owners.
Late last year, the Trudeau government extended the amnesty deadline for legal gun owners until October 30, 2025. It should be noted that this is around the same time a federal election will take place.
When it comes to gun-related deaths in Canada, as reported by LifeSiteNews, Statistics Canada data shows that most violent gun crimes in the country last year were not committed at the hands of legal gun owners but by those who obtained the weapons illegally.
