The federal government has announced a buyback program for military-styled assault rifles. Doctoral candidate Noah Schwartz argues the program is flawed and will not achieve its goals, while Public Safety Minister Bill Blair insists there is no place for such weapons in Canada and the buyback is part of a greater public safety campaign.

The Trudeau government has promised a ban and buyback of what the Minister of Public Safety calls “military-style assault weapons.” On its face, this sounds like something that progressives should get behind.

The buyback, however, won’t achieve its stated goal of reducing gun violence. It may also harm national unity and pay dividends for the Conservatives in the next election.

Buying back 250,000 firearms from licensed gun owners, at a cost of $400-$600 million, will not make us safer. Canada already has strong gun control laws in place and gun owners must meet strict requirements in order to purchase a firearm, including continuous background checks.

Crime in Canada is largely committed by unlicensed individuals buying illegal American handguns on the black market. For example, 75 per cent of all crime guns successfully traced by the Toronto police came from the United States. For handguns, the firearms that are most often used to commit murders in Canada, 84 per cent came from south of the border. We cannot avoid the fact that we share the largest undefended border in the world with the country that has the largest civilian stock of firearms.

These types of buybacks usually don’t work as they face issues of low compliance and funnel guns onto the black market. To make matters worse, the guns this buyback is targeting (assault-weapons) don’t technically exist here. While guns like the AR-15 in Canada look like their counterparts south of the border, they are missing a key part; magazine capacity.

When the United States banned assault weapons in the 1990s, they defined them as semi-automatic weapons “with a large magazine of ammunition.” In Canada, rifle magazines are limited by law to five rounds. Given that rate of fire is what makes assault weapons more dangerous, this difference is a big deal.

So what’s the harm in the ban? Fewer guns can’t be a bad thing, right? But we need to consider whether this policy is worth the political and financial costs.

The recent election demonstrated there is a sharp political divide between east and west in this country. The current fissure is climate change: how can we fight it while also preserving western jobs? But this flashpoint is a symptom of a deeper division that this ban will worsen. Attachment to firearm ownership in the Western provinces is much stronger than it is in central Canada. Abandoning the proposed ban could be a way for the government to show that it is sensitive to Western concerns and make it easier to negotiate on tougher issues.

If the proposed ban goes ahead, the government will be spending at least $400-600 million to buy back rifles that will likely never be used to commit a crime. Recall that Canada’s last major gun control project — the long-gun registry — was projected to cost only $2 million and ended up costing over $2 billion.

Gun control is expensive, and resources should be allocated where they can do the most good. This money could be better spent fighting the deeper social roots of crime by tackling the systemic issues facing disenfranchised young people in places like Toronto, who see gangs as their only viable pathway to prosperity in a Canada that has turned its back on them.

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Targeted intervention programs in at-risk communities, like Operation Ceasefire in Boston, have shown a lot of promise. To its credit, the government has increased funding to the provinces and territories to help tackle gang crime. But these commitments will be dwarfed by the cost of the ban.

Finally, the Liberals are gambling that young people care about gun control, which they do. But gun owners facing the confiscation of their personal property care a lot more. Conservative Party strategists could hardly ask for a better fundraising tool.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is struggling. The Conservatives won the popular vote in the last election and a new leader is sure to energize them for the next. This ban will no doubt motivate hundreds of thousands of gun owners to join the party, volunteer their time and help fill the Conservative’s coffers. It might just be enough of a wave to ride them back into government.

Noah Schwartz is a doctoral candidate in political science at Carleton University. His research focuses on understanding the gun culture in North America.

Prior to my current role as the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, I served for a decade as the chief of the Toronto Police. I’ve spent my life trying to keep people safe, and I have seen first-hand the devastating impact gun violence can have on families and communities.

Most firearms owners are conscientious and law-abiding, and they have my utmost respect, but when their guns get into the hands of someone with violent criminal intent, tragedy results. This isn’t limited to urban centres, either — rural gun violence is a problem as well.

And so we must take decisive action to strengthen gun control.

Criminals obtain guns three ways: they are smuggled, stolen, or diverted. We will act decisively to cut off this supply.

In addition, we will end the proliferation of military-style assault rifles in Canada.

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These weapons were designed to kill people — they have no place in our communities. École Polytechnique, Sainte-Foy, and Moncton — these guns have been used in Canada to kill women, religious minorities, innocent civilians, and police officers.

They have been used all over the world to commit horrendous atrocities — look no further than Sandy Hook Elementary School and Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.

Chiefs of police have been calling for a ban on military-style assault rifles for decades.

We intend to ban these guns and offer a buyback option to Canadians who currently own them.

A buyback program would allow us to safely dispose of these weapons, ensure fair compensation for owners, and ensure that these powerful guns are removed from our communities and rendered inoperable. It is money well spent to protect the public.

We know that the large majority of firearms owners are responsible in how they acquire, store, and dispose of their weapons. They have our full support, and we will work with our partners to develop a buyback program that works for everyone.

But that’s not all we’ve promised Canadians. In the last election, we vowed to make our communities safer, and that requires more than just banning military-style assault rifles.

We also said we were committed to giving cities the ability to ban or restrict handguns, and increasing our government’s already historic investments to fight gang-related violence.

THE BIG DEBATE: For more opposing view columns from Toronto Star contributors, click here.

But let me be equally clear about what we will not do: We will not bring back the long gun registry, and we will not target guns designed for hunting.

Hunters, farmers, law-abiding recreational gun owners — these people deserve our respect, and we will ensure that they are treated fairly.

Our government’s commitment to safer streets is not new. In the last four years, we’ve already taken important action to address gun violence.

We invested $327 million to give police and prosecutors new resources and tools to fight gang-related violence and address gun smuggling. We also brought in legislation that ensures stronger background checks.

But we have even more important work ahead of us.

Banning military-style assault rifles, giving cities the ability to ban or restrict handguns, and doing even more to tackle gang violence are just pieces of our larger, holistic plan to make our streets safer.

We intend to make unprecedented investments in kids and communities, because we know that improving social conditions goes a long way in reducing crime and violence.

We will empower police to take preventative steps to keep a dangerous situation from becoming deadly.

We’ll strengthen our border, tackle the criminal diversion of handguns, and see stricter storage laws act as a deterrent to theft.

And through it all, we will work closely with provinces, territories, and municipalities, empowering them to take actions necessary and appropriate to their circumstances.

Strengthening gun control demands thoughtfulness and careful consideration. But we cannot be afraid of change.

Canadians are asking for real leadership to address gun violence, and real leadership is exactly what we will deliver.

Bill Blair is the federal minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

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