Email submission sent to the SECD inbox To Whom it May Concern, I am a 5th generation Canadian whose family has resided in this area for generations. Firearms have been a way of life for that entire time providing sustenance, protection, and sport since when my family helped settle this part of Canada. I have been a legal, law abiding gun owner for yrs. I learned to be a respectful and competent firearms owner from my father, as he learned from his father, and we have continued this tradition with my children and now my grandchildren.

I also served my country for yrs as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and then as a military contractor for a further 12+ yrs. I understand rules/regulations and service before self. I also understand that gun ownership is a privilege not a right in Canada. Responsible gun owners must work everyday to earn/maintain that privilege. What I don’t understand is bill C21. This bill and it’s amendments appear to be politically motivated to address the rise in gang related gun violence in our major cities and the increase in violent crimes.

Given that there is no hard evidence that suggests legally obtained, owned, and stored firearms are part of the gang violence/violent crime problem in Canada the only people who will be affected directly fm C21 are legal gun owners and Canadian gun heritage. Criminals are not restricted by the same rules and regulations that legal Canadian gun owners are.

The longest unprotected border in the world means that illegal gun trafficking is the main source of criminal firearms, a fact that bill C21 does little to address and, if implemented, will in fact take up scarce Police resources and budgets/money that could be better spent on stemming the flow of illegal firearms into Canada. The tragic massacre in Nova Scotia, committed by a madman that was known to law enforcement, who did not possess any Canadian firearms licences and using illegally obtained firearms, spawned the current proposed legislation.

If that logic is thought to be valid why is the Liberal government not also proposing bans on white vans as used in the Apr attack in Toronto or knives as used in the Sep attack in Saskatchewan? All attacks resulted in mass loss of life/injury, committed by criminals using different methods of inflicting maximimum casualties. Yet the only action taken is to punish legal, law abiding Canadian gun owners... not a logical solution and one that will have little, if any effect, on improving the security of the average Canadian.

I fear this is the easy solution to improve the optics of a government ‘doing something’ to calm a very vocal anti-gun coalition and the uneducated masses who have little knowledge of the very strict rules required for gun ownership in Canada. Email submission sent to the SECD inbox As a last thought I wonder if you or your advisers are firearm owners or have any real concept of what training, background/security checks, or expense that is required to be a legal gun owner in Canada?

If not perhaps you should educate yourselves by taking the training required to obtain a Possession Acquisition Licence (PAL), and a Restricted PAL (RPAL). At a minimum you would understand what the average Canadian gun owner requires to earn the privilege of gun ownership, to be part of Canadian gun heritage, and therefore better educated to make decisions reference gun laws in Canada. At best you may understand Canada already has a world class, responsible, gun culture that will not be improved by bill C21 and its amendments.

Please reconsider bill C21 + amendments and their real impact on overall Canadian security. Respectfully, J.G. Beckett MSM, CD