Legal gun owners in Canada “are scared right now” that the federal government intends to ban legal firearms.

“There is definitely fear in the gun-owning community,” says Amanda Hare, owner of Oley’s Armoury in Powassan.

Hare says the fear is that “AR-variant rifles” will be reclassified as prohibited weapons. They are now listed as restricted weapons, the same category as handguns.

AR stands for Armalite Rifles, the manufacturer of semi-automatic rifles which resemble the firearms used by numerous militaries around the world, including the Canadian Armed Forces.

The firearms are often incorrectly referred to as assault rifles.

The issue has gained traction after Parry Sound-Muskoka MP Tony Clement raised it in Question Period May 9, when he used information he received from a “reputable source” that the Liberal government “was moving ahead with a gun ban . . . by order in council rather than debating it in the House of Commons.

“The interesting thing is I asked for a confirmation or denial . . . and Bill Blair (the federal minister of border security and organized crime reduction) didn’t deny it,” Clement said in a telephone interview.

“It was a non-denial.”

Clement says he did not have information on what firearms may be banned by the cabinet decision, “but speculation is that it will be AR-types and handguns.”

The information he has, though, is that the decision will be a “sweeping ban” on various firearms.

Clement said in the May 9 question that his information indicated Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would make the announcement “at the Women Deliver conference to be held in early June in Vancouver, which New Zealand Prime Minister (Jacinda) Ardern will also attend.”

The Prime Minister’s Office has since denied there will be any such announcement at the conference.

Blair says the government “remains absolutely committed to undertaking all measures that are effective in keeping Canadians safe,” and that there is “no greater responsibility for any order of government than the safety of its citizens and the protection of its kids.”

“The fear right now is we honestly don’t know what is going to happen,” Hare says.

She says gun owners in Canada “are so licensed, so restricted, so controlled,” and there are “so few incidents” in this country involving firearms.

Clement speculates that any new firearms control is “a desperation attempt to get re-elected” by dividing Canadians on this and other issues in the lead-up to the Oct. 21 federal election.

“Millions of Canadians are quietly, legally pursuing lives in Canada with firearms,” he says.

“We all want to get rid of the gangs and gun crime, but this is not the way to do it.”

Instead, he says, the firearm community has to have a voice.

“We are not going to get rid of the problem” by banning certain types of firearms.

Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Anthony Rota said Blair “is looking at the options” during discussions with Canadians on gun safety but has, as of yet, offered no conclusions.

“There is a lot of speculation about what is going on,” Rota says, and said Blair will be putting something out shortly.

“My concern is I don’t want to impede any hunters,” Rota says, but from what he has seen and learned in discussions with Blair, that does not appear to be an issue.

“Any time guns are mentioned in Parliament it is very polarizing,” Rota says. “There is a small group at one end that wants to eliminate them altogether, and another small group at the other end who want it completely open, walking down the street with six-shooters.

“But most Canadians are reasonable.”