Activists are ramping up attacks in a new social-media campaign that calls for stiffer gun-control measures, as the Liberal government considers banning handguns and assault rifles.

The increasingly heated war of words between firearms advocates and gun-control supporters is not only in response to Ottawa’s ongoing review of handguns and semi-automatic rifles, but also to Bill C-71, government legislation that would reinstate point-of-sale records and mandatory licence validation for non-restricted rifles and shotguns.

The social-media push from gun-control activists intensified over the past few weeks after Bill C-71 finally began its slow passage through the Senate, following introduction in the House of Commons last March.

Last month, gun owners co-opted a Twitter strategy launched by the National Coalition for Gun Control, which started the campaign with the hashtag #triggerchange, an ironic reference to firearms which is intended to attract support for a reinvigorated gun-control movement.

Led in large part by the influential and growing Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights (CCFR), firearm owners who oppose stiffer controls flooded #triggerchange with posts promoting gun rights and critical of the Liberals, the Coalition for Gun Control (CGC), and Montreal gun control group PolySeSouvient, as well as one of its spokespeople, Heidi Rathjen.

“I’ve been using their #triggerchange hashtag to post pro-gun stuff,” pro-gun user SpectreBallistics wrote on the Reddit canadaguns forum after the CGC launched its campaign. “I suggest everyone do the same.” The post was captured and passed on to iPolitics.

“Great idea,” CaptainAsh said in a response also captured and forwarded to iPolitics. “Posted a few, I’ll keep it up. We can own the hashtag. Twitter users, get on the hashtag. Keep it respectful and keep it to the facts!”

Rathjen said she was uncertain whether the mounting opposition to a handgun ban, and a ban on tactical semi-automatic rifles known as “black guns,” has had an effect on Border Security Minister Bill Blair’s study.

“It’s hard to tell, because on the one hand, there is mounting public support and momentum among students. Support is growing in favour of gun control, in favour of a ban on handgun and assault rifles,” she said.

“The gun lobby has been reacting to this possibility by fear-mongering and saying, ‘Long guns are next,’ and ratcheting up their campaigns against the possibility.”

CCFR president Rod Giltaca says he believes the coalition has stirred up opposition to the Liberal bill, as well as the consideration of a handgun ban.

“I would agree with that. We’re the group that really tries to represent gun owners on social media platforms and in the mainstream,” said Giltaca, whose coalition has grown to more than 200 field officers and 26,000 followers on Facebook. Giltaca himself has 35,000 subscribers on his YouTube account.

“Gun owners are tired of the constant attacks. They just want to stand up for themselves, and they’re sick of the demonization.”

Bill C-71 would also expand the depth of personal background checks for gun-licence applicants, from the last five years to his or her entire lifetime. The bill is one part of fulfilling a 2015 Liberal election commitment to heighten gun control without bringing back the form of long-gun registry the previous Conservative government dismantled in 2012.

The consideration of a ban on handguns and assault rifles was the Liberal follow to another election promise: to get handguns and assault weapons “off our streets.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hinted last week — while in Montreal to commemorate the lives of 14 women who died in a mass shooting at the Polytechnique engineering school in 1989 — that the government might have decided against an outright ban.

“We are thinking about how we will do better to counter violence from handguns and assault weapons,” Trudeau said. “We want to limit the easy access that unfortunately remains for criminals with handguns and assault weapons.”

Rathjen said the statement was unsettling.

“It’s hard to say what the government is going to do,” she said. “Certainly, Justin Trudeau’s comments were not reassuring. Saying you don’t want criminals to have handguns or assault weapons is not saying much. The point is we don’t want any Canadians to have handguns and assault weapons.”

The Toronto Star quoted a government source last week as saying the Liberals are considering further measures to safeguard and increase handgun security rather than an outright ban.

Blair began considering a ban, at the suggestion of Trudeau, after city councils in Toronto and Montreal voted in favour of prohibition in the wake of handgun shootings last summer. However, the head of Toronto’s police union told CBC earlier this year the ban would have “no impact” on gun violence and called it a “notional gesture, at best.”