Council shoots down federal gun buyback program
A bid to have the city formally oppose the federal government’s Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program unanimously passed at the Jan. 27 council meeting.
Ward 6 Coun. Ron Ashmore sponsored a memorandum calling on the city to formally oppose the federal gun buyback program, saying it would send a message to Ottawa that the initiative unfairly targets law-abiding gun owners and doesn’t address gun crime.
In addressing council, Ashmore cited a Dec. 21, 2025, New York Times article claiming that most gun crimes in Canada are a result of illegal firearms crossing the border from the U.S.
“We know that the issue is with the border, and that’s where the focus should be – on criminals and not on law-abiding firearms owners,” Ashmore told council. “We need to really stand up for our legal firearms owners. … They are not the problem; the government is the problem, unfortunately.”
The federal gun buyback program seeks to remove approximately 2,500 makes and models of “assault-style” firearms prohibited since May 2020.
Ottawa says the program is designed to “tackle gun violence in Canadian communities,” but critics, including the Conservative Party of Canada, argue it disproportionately affects sport shooters and hunters.
In seconding the motion, Ward 4 Coun. Dan Joyce, who stated he’s not a gun owner, said he thinks the buyback program is “hitting gun owners with too broad of a swipe,” and that the government’s approach to gun control needs to be “more nuanced.”
Joyce noted there’s an urban-rural divide in Canada when it comes to views on gun control. Generally speaking, he noted that people in urban areas are more likely to support stricter gun-control measures, while people in rural areas do not.
“Ward 4 is rural; I’ve looked at the survey stats and I’m quite confident that the majority of my constituents are against this buyback program, and therefore I am in support of this (memorandum) because I support the majority of my constituents,” Joyce said to a round of applause from the gallery.
Kawartha Lakes resident and licensed gun owner Luke Procter delivered a deputation at the meeting urging council to refuse to participate in the buyback program.
Procter said he estimates there are 6,000 to 10,000 firearm licence holders in Kawartha Lakes, many of whom, he said, are concerned about the buyback program.
Procter said the majority of gun crimes in Canada are committed by people with illegally possessed handguns – not legally acquired long guns – and that the buyback program is misdirected.
“These current gun bans only apply to legally purchased, stored and used long guns, including rifles and shotguns,” he said. “These bans and confiscations seek to destroy rural life while having no impact on the very criminals who are committing all the crimes.”
The memorandum requests copies of the resolution be sent to the offices of Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes MP Jamie Schmale, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree and Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The resolution will also be sent to the board of the Kawartha Lakes Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police, neither of which are participating in the buyback program.
The buyback program’s rollout for individuals began Jan. 19. Those wishing to participate in the voluntary initiative have until March 31 to submit a declaration. Once a prohibited firearm is validated and all requirements are met, compensation payments will be issued within 45 business days.
After the deadline, owners of prohibited firearms will no longer be eligible for compensation and will have until Oct. 30 to “safely dispose of or permanently deactivate” them, or risk criminal liability for illegal possession.
“While participating in the program is voluntary, compliance with the law is not,” the government said on its website.
When I lived in Wellington County, I volunteered with the Rural Women’s Shelter program. We saw individuals, subject to the stress of long hours, financial setbacks, poor weather, grinding poverty, psychosis and sadistic personality disorders, use their legal guns to terrorize their families. Many of those victims suffered alone and in silence because of their rural residence and because their rural livelihoods depended on keeping those legally owned firearms.
As Councillor Joyce observed, there is an urban/rural divide in support for the government’s buy back program. But gun crime is not limited to our big cities. Where I live in Lindsay, there have been violent crimes committed with guns illegally smuggled across the US/Canada border and used to commit violent acts within a block of my home.
The problem the federal government seeks to address with its poorly supported gun buy back program is violence. But everyone – even the government sponsoring the program – knows it won’t solve the problem. Going ahead with it, despite a widespread recognition it misses the mark, is cynical politics intended to pacify the anti-gun voter lobby.
Farmers need guns to protect their livestock from predators, and hunters and sports shooters have a right to preserve and enjoy their culture. I participated in the local Tories on Target shooting events at Milcun Training Centre in Minden for several years and thoroughly enjoyed the safe learning experience. But we must not fool ourselves that guns, including legally owned guns, pose no risk to families and to public safety. There is a significant growth in Canada of extremist groups and angry and frustrated lone wolves driven by anti-government paranoid ideas who are stockpiling legally purchased guns and ammunition to use in the event they feel sufficiently threatened by a government they believe is dangerously oppressive and irredeemably unresponsive to the voice of “the people”.