Toronto police seized a large number of guns in a series of raids targeting Five Point Generals in Project Patton. June 22, 2018. Rosie DiManno/Toronto Star file photo

With just over a week before the Commons adjourns for the summer and an October election, the Liberal caucus remains divided over possible measures to ban handguns or assault-style semi-automatic rifles, two senior Liberals say.

The rift is between MPs who represent rural electoral districts, or small city ridings in rural areas, and incumbents representing large city and urban electoral districts, one veteran Liberal told iPolitics.

“Discussions are ongoing,” said Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Minister Bill Blair.

The division reflects views from a series of public opinion polls since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assigned Blair to launch a study of potential handgun and assault rifles last fall.

An Alberta Conservative MP questioned whether the Liberals would be going ahead with a risky political move such as banning handguns as the party remains burdened with a range of other problems that have been mounting since last August.

“Anytime you have a position, you risk alienating individuals,” Medicine Hat Conservative MP Glen Motz said Wednesday, the second-last caucus day for the three recognized parties in the Commons before a summer adjournment scheduled for Friday, June 21.

“They’ve got enough issues on their plate; I don’t know if they want to add another one,” said Motz, a former inspector with the Medicine Hat Police Service.

It is possible that the government, in part because of a press of legislation being rushed through the Commons this week, would wait until the adjournment for an announcement closer to Parliament’s dissolution and the fall election period.

In the meantime, the government is expected to schedule royal assent next week to enact Bill C-71, legislation the government tabled in March, 2018, to strengthen the legal regime for sales of rifles and shotguns, expand background checks for acquiring or renewing gun licences and reinstating a permit system for transporting restricted or prohibited firearms.

READ MORE: Report on handguns, assault weapons coming ‘very quickly,’ Goodale predicts

Blair said on CTV News Power Play that if there is no time to complete the “pretty big measures” in addition to Bill C-71, “then we’ll come back and get it done.”

There have been unattributed reports claiming Blair wants to focus on assault rifles, the kind of military-style semi-automatic tactical rifles the New Zealand government banned after the shooting deaths of 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand earlier this year.

An Angus Reid Institute public opinion survey last month found public support for a ban on assault weapons reached 75 per cent, well above the 61 per cent of respondents who supported a ban on civilian possession of handguns.

Motz said he would not be surprised if Liberal MPs representing rural electoral districts might be balking.

“I would share their concerns and so should urban MPs be concerned,” he said.”There’s a lot of law-abiding sport shooters and hobbyists and law-abiding gun owners that live in urban centres and have never posed a threat to public safety.”