Top e-petitions deal with firearms rights

by Jeff Helsdon | December 10, 2020
A row of guns hanging on the wall

Alberta Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner’s (Calgary-Nose Hill) e-petition opposing the order in council that banned many centrefire semi-automatic rifles is now the most signed e-petition in Canada.

Released May 5, the e-petition received 230,905 signatures by its Sept. 2 close, bumping Conservative MP Glen Motz’s (Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner) e-petition on the same topic that previously held the top spot at 175,310. The third-place e-petition is also regarding firearms rights.

Semi-automatic centrefire rifle ban

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau imposed legislation banning many semi-automatic centrefire rifles that look like military guns in the wake of the Nova Scotia shooting through an order in council – a process where cabinet passes legislation and avoids debate before the House of Commons. Called modern sporting rifles, these guns still have the same magazine limitations as traditional hunting centrefire such as the Browning BAR, Benelli R-1 and Remington 7400, but have a different look.

Rempel Garner’s e-petition called on the government to scrap its order-in-council and instead pass legislation “that will target criminals, stop the smuggling of firearms into Canada, go after those who illegally acquire firearms, and apologize to legal firearms owners in Canada.”

In the petition preamble, Rempel Garner notes the order in council is an assault on democracy, asserts these measures will do nothing to prevent crime and was using emotion from the Nova Scotia shooting with illegally-obtained firearms to impose this confiscation.

Rempel Garner thanks signees

While Rempel Garner was glad to see her petition in the top spot and thanked everyone who signed it, she thought there would be more signatures since there are two million firearms owners in Canada.

“I’m proud of the firearms community saying you taking guns away from us isn’t going to do anything to make our streets safer,” she said.

Rempel Garner said the federal government is dangerously wrong on this issue and the petition will show there are people against it.

At press time, she said an e-petition can either be presented in the House of Common or be presented to the clerk. “As we speak, we are in the middle of a confidence vote so we have to see what’s next.”

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Comments

  1. Tim Podwinski wrote: There would be a lot more signatures but not everybody new of these petitions, you should be ashamed for not trying harder to get the info out there.
  2. Dave wrote: Where do I sign for the e petition banning the ownership of automatic hunting rifles Thanks