Like the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s 2020 “assault weapon” ban and confiscation program (“buyback”) will mark its fourth anniversary this spring.

His Liberal government has previously shared little information about the anticipated costs, timing and mechanics of how this is expected to be enforced. As recently as last July, a Firearms Buyback Program (FBP) overview page at the Public Safety Canada website indicated that “FBP employs twenty-four employees with an operating budget of approximately $5.4M.” It cites an incorrect amnesty expiry date of October 2023 and even so, describes a strangely compacted timeframe in 2023 for initiation, with the “collection of business stock beginning before the end of the year, and to get started with individual collection in the second half of 2023.” “Key partners” for program implementation include “Provinces, Territories and Municipalities,” with the FBP also working “with international partners, including the New Zealand Police, to inform program design development and apply lessons learned from their buyback experience.”

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20240108/canadas-guns-a-step-closer-to-confiscation-and-destruction