National handgun sales 'freeze' takes effect today

Well I guess the criminals will have to continue to rely on the underground market to get their bang bangs.

The gun stores were actually happy about the freeze when it was announced. It resulted in their handgun sales exploding in number as buyers bought up as many as they could before the freeze/ban came into effect.

Prediction - not a single gang shooting, the sort that comprise the vast majority of handgun-related injuries & deaths in Canadian cities, will be prevented by this bullshit at all. That's the biggest reason why gun control is mostly a joke - the illegal weapons behind the typical gun attacks remain completely unregulated and in the hands of the criminals who laugh at every single other law of the land. Gun control just gives them more free comedy.

The gang banger back and forth thing is now an almost daily occurrence in the lower mainland. Sounds of shots followed by body with bullets followed by vehicle on fire some distance away. Every fucking one is a "targeted" incident, no worries to the public, all good, sooner or later they'll all off each other. One recently happened just a few blocks away from me. Didn't hear the shots but certainly heard the sirens.

I drive past a spot several times per week where a mother of five got caught between a gangster in a vehicle trying to shoot someone trying to escape them in another vehicle. The woman died on the spot. I'd bet the remains of what little I have left as possessions that the POS who was shooting a handgun out of a speeding SUV didn't follow the rules by first taking the firearms classes to acquire a PAL and then buying his gun from the law-abiding people who operate a gun store in Alberta. There's at least a 99.999999% chance that he got his firearms, both the ones he kept for himself as well as the ones he sold off to other criminals, from the same place he got the 100 kg or so of meth or coke or opioids he most likely has hidden away under the floorboards of this house. The path that gun took to end up with him probably didn't make a stop into the possession of a single decent non-criminal person before it reached its final destination in the hand of someone who killed a mom of five.

Gun control = auto-fail in any country where the politicians in charge huff & puff all the time about people who own guns legally are "a ticking time bomb ready to go off!" but then do absolutely nothing about the criminals who commit crimes with illegal unregistered & stolen guns. It's a crock and always has been.

For all the griping not a single Liberal supporter is gonna change their vote, not a single NDP or Green will vote for PeePee over handguns.
If you don't own one now, you're not gonna.
No valid reason to own one anyway.

Guess I’ll go against the grain here….

It’s still worthwhile to reduce the amount of deadly weapons in society. Obviously it won’t affect criminals, but it still is a positive. People who can be law abiding citizens one moment, can fly off the handle, and with a gun the results can be tragic.

They can also fly off the handle with a van.

If you want to solve a problem, don't attack the wrong symptom. Banning handguns won't stop domestic violence.

It will win elections.

Legally and constitutionally a firearm owner or buyer has absolutely no obligation at all to provide anyone, especially the government, a so-called "valid reason" for having or buying a gun. Stopping anyone with a criminal record from ever having a gun in their possession for their entire life? Go right ahead, their choice to engage in crime forever eliminated IMO their right to possess a firearm as their personal property. Any non-criminal with a firearm though? Their only response to anyone bothering them should be "because it's none of your fucking business, that's why".

As we've established, the voting pool isn't generally that bright.