Provincial government goes against federal intention, implements ban on firearms bans

The provincial government is trying to cut any federal legislation on the issue off at the knees; making amendments to a bill to limit the ability of municipalities to create bylaws to ban the ownership of guns.

The amendments were introduced to Bill 194 on Tuesday to “better protect the rights of legal firearm and handgun owners” according to a news release.

This is a direct reaction to comments from the Prime Minister that his government will be tougher on guns and intends to introduce legislation to allow municipalities to implement their own handguns bans.

Premier Scott Moe said he will take every opportunity to make sure the status quo remains.

“This is not effective policy, when you go after people that own when the real problem is the stolen and smuggled firearms in Saskatchewan and I would put forward, quite likely, a similar challenge across the nation,” said Moe.

Moe said the bill changes would prevent a patchwork of laws in the province and will do right by Saskatchewan people and protect law-abiding gun owners.

“Law-abiding firearms people are not the issue, and I’ve indicated this to the federal government. The issue is combatting illegal gun crime in this nation, wherever you are.”

When asked why his government has chosen to trump the possible will of democratically elected city or town councils, Moe replied that the provincial government is also democratically elected.

“We’ve chose to represent the law-abiding firearm owners here in the province since they do not have representation in the federal government at the current point,” said Moe.

He also took the opportunity to point out that, while the federal government ran on gun bans, the Liberal party did very poorly in the election in Saskatchewan.