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What is, is the choice to leave the RCMP entirely responsible for classifying guns into the three categories established by the Firearms Act, letting police decide which firearms will be subject to various levels of oversight and control.

There are some changes that can only be considered bizarre

Guns in Canada can be non-restricted (most rifles and shotguns), restricted (most handguns and some rifles) or prohibited (some handguns and rifles the government has deemed particularly dangerous, often with weak reasoning). Most gun licences in Canada cover only non-restricted guns; only a very few Canadians, who previously owned prohibited firearms, are permitted to possess a grandfathered-in prohibited licence. Changing a gun’s classification can therefore make it, with the stroke of a pen, much harder to access, even for valid licence holders. This reeks of a government trying to distance itself from public anger over decisions regarding firearms reclassifications (“Don’t blame us, the RCMP changed the rules!”) What other decisions regarding law enforcement regulations, not just operational execution, do the Liberals think should be left entirely in the hands of police? Our system relies on civilian oversight over police for a reason.

And then, there are changes that can only be considered bizarre. The Liberals will partially bring back a document known as an Authorization to Transport, or ATT, which owners of restricted guns will need before transporting their gun, in a secured container, to a legitimate gun show for display and/or sale, or to a gunsmith’s shop for maintenance. The ATT had been largely eliminated by the previous Conservative government, and made a condition of a valid restricted firearms licence. The Liberals are bringing it back in part (trips to shooting ranges will still be permitted without a separate ATT) for no valid public safety reason at all. It’s clearly just something they will claim as evidence of their efforts to tighten up gun controls. Technically, that’s true. But it is a tighter control that serves no end except that of Liberal political fortunes, and not enhanced public safety.