Guns turned over to police in Waterloo, Ont., during their November 2017 gun-amnesty program. (Waterloo Regional Police Service / Twitter photo)

Support from gun owners who oppose the Liberal government’s plan to get rid of military-style rifles is surging on a House of Commons petition.

Determined gun owners who support the petition oppose Liberal suggestions a ban on the guns will be done through regulations passed by Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet.

The e-petition sponsored by Alberta MP Glen Motz had accumulated 43,022 signatures by 1:40 p.m. EST Friday, after signatures opened on Tuesday this week.

The petition, started by a constituent in Motz’s Medicine Hat riding, claims a ban on the rifles, also referred to as assault rifles, through regulation only would be “an egregious overreach of executive authorities, bypassing the democratic process of the House and the elected representatives of Canadians.”

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair recently said in an interview with iPolitics that legislation would likely be required for such a major change in gun law and cited the Firearms Act. Firearm owners, gun rights activists and lobby groups fear the government will resort to cabinet orders.

The wave of support for the petition is a “clear indication” that gun owners feel the government is treating them unfairly, said Rod Giltaca, founder and chief executive officer of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights.

Support appeared to be widespread, with a surge of just under 1,000 signatures between the time iPolitics contacted Giltaca and the time he emailed a response to questions.

READ MORE: Gun owners wanted buy back plan for prohibited rifles, says Blair

Giltaca said he was confident the petition sponsored by Motz, a former police inspector who spent 35 years with the Medicine Hat police department, would surpass the 20,000 signatures that were accumulated on a 2018 petition sponsored by the Coalition for Gun Control that called for an immediate ban on civilian ownership of handguns and military assault rifles.

There is no legal definition for assault weapons in Canada’s laws, but it is a general term for semi-automatic rifles that either stem from rifles first manufactured for military use or subsequent models that resemble assault weapons, even though in Canada they are restricted to semi-automatic fire with a magazine that can hold no more than five cartridges.

The type of rifles at the centre of the controversy also have barrels that are too short to qualify for non-restricted firearms. Non-restricted firearms do not require registration with the RCMP’s Canadian Firearms Centre and can be used for hunting. They would not be subject to the government prohibition, which includes a buyback clause where the government would compensate owners who lose their rifles, with payments at market value for the guns.

A co-ordinator with one of Canada’s most prominent gun-control advocacy, the Montreal-based PolyseSouvient (Poly Remembers), said the government should expect the backlash against the buyback plan to grow.

“The petition, the letter writing campaigns and the attacks on Bill Blair are all predictable,” said PolyseSouvient co-ordinator Heidi Rathjen.

Rathjen said supporters of the ban “should not be swayed since it was a clear mandate from the majority of Canadians who voted for parties who all ran on this very specific promise.”

She listed the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois.

As of April 1, 2018, 73,434 restricted rifles were registered in the Canadian Firearms Registry, a copy of the registry obtained by iPolitics shows.

A further 9,941 were registered as prohibited rifles, which means they can be transported out of the owner’s dwelling place only in exceptional circumstances.