LLOYDMINSTER, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — Alberta will defend its right to bear arms in the face of the Liberal confiscation plan, according to Premier Danielle Smith.
During the August 27 Alberta Next town hall in Lloydminster, Smith assured Canadians that Alberta is working to ensure that citizens’ right to bear arms is not trampled by the Liberal gun confiscation plan.
“We told the municipalities, ‘No, you can’t have a handgun ban. That is not municipal jurisdiction.’ We told the RCMP, ‘No, you cannot participate in the confiscation scheme,’” Smith said.
According to Smith, Alberta has the authority to regulate the use of firearms apart from the federal government. Under Alberta laws, citizens would retain their right to own, collect, and use firearms for sport shooting, hunting, and other purposes.
Smith further revealed that her government is working to strengthen its independence and close any loopholes that would allow the Liberals to enforce their confiscation plan.
“We’re working right now on what a legislative framework for an Alberta firearms license would look like. We’re going to fight it out because property and civil rights are our jurisdiction,” she said.
“You’ll see that us and Saskatchewan are going to do whatever we can to make sure that we’re defending firearms owners’ rights,” she said.
For years, the Liberal government has tightened restrictions on firearm ownership, slowly restricting more and more models and demanding that Canadians turn in their firearms.
Former Liberal Prime Minister Justin 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.
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 the bill would impact hunters, Trudeau eventually admitted that C-21 would indeed ban certain types of hunting rifles.
On the same day news broke that Canada Post said it would not participate in Trudeau’s gun buyback, Alberta chief firearms officer Teri Bryant issued a statement saying, “We urge the federal government to abandon this ill-advised program and meaningfully consult the provinces as we work to address the actual causes of firearms crime.”
“Canadians are still waiting for concrete details about the federal firearms confiscation program that has been in the works since 2020, and Canada Post’s refusal to participate in the federal government’s firearms ‘buy-back’ program is just one more example of how little forethought or engagement has gone into implementation of this program,” Bryant said.
Indeed, LifeSiteNews reported in February that despite Trudeau’s crackdown on legal gun owners, 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.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, along with premiers from no less than four additional provinces, are opposed to C- 21.
In late 2023, Smith promised she would strengthen the gun rights of Albertans because of Trudeau’s gun grab.
The Trudeau government extended the amnesty deadline for legal gun owners until October 30, 2025, which is in just over a month.
