Gun shops losing out on sales thanks to new gun control laws

Gun retailers in Saskatchewan are frustrated about losing out on revenue thanks to new Canadian gun control laws.

Federal regulations which took effect late last month prohibited the sale, purchase, or transfer of handguns in Canada.

Evan Zentner, assistant manager at Extreme Range Outfitters in Saskatoon, said he has spent the last 10 years of his life working with guns. The new ban on handguns, he said, is going to have a serious, long-term impact on the store.

“It was just starting to become a really substantial portion of our business before the announcement,” Zentner said.

Extreme Range Outfitters assistant manager Evan Zentner holds an unloaded handgun in the store on Nov. 1, 2022. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

While the announcement of the coming ban triggered an initial rush in handgun sales, he said revenue is nothing in comparison to the future business gun sellers like him will lose out on.

Firearms have been an aspect of Canadian culture for a long time, Zentner explained, and while handguns are only a small portion of that, he said they are very popular for shooting sports and recreational shooting.

Shooting sports could also be at risk following the new regulations, according to Kevin Kopp, owner of North Pro Sports in Saskatoon.

“It’s basically dissolved handgun shooting sports in Canada altogether,” said Kopp.

With the Trudeau government in power, Kopp said there has always been some worry about new gun laws affecting the industry, but the quick implementation of the handgun ban was still surprising.

“It sort of did catch us off guard. We didn’t believe it would be an instant thing,” Kopp said.

Kopp said he has seen a growing interest in shooting sports over the past few years. Now, he feels that his customers — who have spent hours being trained and vetted to own and handle handguns — have lost the freedom to enjoy a fun and relaxing leisure activity.

“Not everybody just wants to play hockey,” Kopp said. “There’s folks that want to do different sports in the world, and this is one of them.”

Luckily, he said, because sales of handguns have been so brisk in recent months, Kopp’s store wasn’t left with a significant amount of stock when the new regulation came into effect. He said it will still hurt his future revenue, however.

Kopp also said gun ranges from coast to coast will suffer disproportionately with the intense restrictions on handguns.

Extreme Range Outfitters, on the other hand, was left with “far more” inventory than it would’ve liked when the handgun sales ban took effect. The move also stifled the store’s auction services, Zentner said.

Zentner said sellers and buyers were extremely displeased with the move. Every firearm covered under the ban that was posted to their website for their next auction had to be removed and returned to sellers, he said. The store was also stuck with guns that people had won at previous auctions but hadn’t yet paid for.

“That’s a lot of money out of pocket in a very short period of time,” said Zentner, estimating the store’s losses in the five-figure range.

While there are some caveats in the new rules to allow for firearms to be exported, Zentner said his store doesn’t have that ability, and would have to pay another business to sell its leftover handguns on the export market. Further, he said, the list of countries where Canada is allowed to export firearms is very limited.

It’s an example of how legal allowances don’t practically work for those in the industry, Zentner said, and it’s leaving the business little chance to recoup its losses.

The new law is one Zentner sees no benefit from.

“Having a restricted firearms licence is not an easy thing,” he said.

Zentner said there are regular background checks that require people to be on their best behaviour, alongside other barriers designed to keep handguns out of the wrong hands.

“You can’t even own a handgun if you have a licence, unless you’ve got a range membership and a place to shoot it,” Zentner said.

He said people inquiring with the store about the process to become licensed will often walk away, dissuaded by the long and detailed process required.

“It’s one of the most difficult things to acquire legally in Canada,” he said.

“Nobody is going through a two-day training course, paying their licence fees, getting their criminal background checks, submitting their forms, waiting a year for a licence, then waiting another couple weeks to get a handgun transferred into their name and then taking it and holding up a 7-Eleven with it.”

Zentner said he feels like the new laws are treating legal gun owners as political scapegoats.

“It’s a lot easier to simply punish the legal gun owners to make it look like you’re doing something,” he said. “We’ve been screaming this entire time, ‘We are not the problem!’ “