It’s fascinating to watch Bill Blair get roasted for ‘betraying’ a host of lobby groups who want the government to confiscate my legally-acquired and legally-owned firearms but those same lobby groups refuse to support Firearm Prohibition Order Reform to keep illegal guns out of the hands of convicted violent criminals.

Their position is a little bizarre, to be honest.

I don’t fear licensed firearm owners one bit but I am, at the very least, apprehensive about violent repeat offenders with illegal guns in their hands.

That said…

“This is a total betrayal,” said Suzanne Laplante-Edward, mother of Anne-Marie Edward, one of 14 women killed on Dec. 6, 1989.

“My family and I have fought for three decades to ban these weapons. We thought we had won in the fall of 2019 when the Liberals announced with much pomp and circumstance that they would ban and buy back all of these killing machines. They lied to us. They lied to Canadians.”

“Survivors, witnesses and families of victims reacted in anger and dismay to the Trudeau government’s decision to backtrack on its promise to remove all newly prohibited assault weapons from circulation by proposing a voluntary buyback, as opposed to a mandatory program as was done in New Zealand and Australia in the aftermath of mass shootings with semi-automatic assault-style firearms,” said ‘gun control’ group PolySeSouvient.

“Without a mandatory buyback program, tens of thousands of fully functional assault weapons will remain in circulation for decades to come,” said ‘gun control’ advocate Nathalie Provost.

Doctors for Protection From Guns, a lobby group opposed to legal ownership of firearms but one that’s stunningly silent on Firearm Prohibition Order Reform, made me laugh so the day wasn’t a total loss.

“We are particularly pleased with the action taken on non-powder firearms (BB and pellet guns), a gateway gun that is a cause of injury in children,” said CDPG’s @KirstinYeh, Pediatric Emergency Physician at the IWK Health in Halifax.

“This is a huge win for the gun lobby,” said Heidi Rathjen.

“By leaving thousands of functional assault weapons in private hands,” Rathjen railed, “the Liberals are ensuring that the next Conservative government can simply cancel the ban.”

While I wish this were true, I doubt it will ever become reality. If anyone wants to challenge me on that point, just contact me directly and I’ll explain why I think this Liberal Fear will never become Conservative reality.

Meanwhile, not one sentence in Bill C-21 addresses the ongoing violence in downtown Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. That point seems lost on all those feeling betrayed today by their Liberal saviours.

“We are not targeting law-abiding citizens who own guns to go hunting or for sport shooting,” Justin Trudeau told Canadian gun owners with a straight face.

“The measures we’re proposing are concrete and practical and they have one goal and one goal only — protecting you, your family and your community.”

If that were true, Justin Trudeau would focus his legislative efforts at stopping violent criminals who use illegal firearms to commit their atrocities in Canadian cities – like the two children shot at 25 Strong in Toronto.

But he won’t.

With the exception of adding 4 years on to the maximum penalty for smuggling illegal firearms into Canada and stealing guns, not one line of Bill C-21 addresses criminals at all.

Yet people continue to fall for Justin Trudeau and Bill Blair’s lies.

The day after their virtue-laden lies to Canadians, Liberal Justice Minister David Lametti introduced Bill C-22 into Parliament which, bizarrely, reduces penalties for illegal possession of a loaded handgun, robbery with a firearm, and possession of a firearm obtained through crime.

The Trudeau government doesn’t care about stopping violent criminals. They never have.

I don’t know why this is so hard for people to comprehend.

Kaycee Madu, Alberta’s Minister of Justice and Solicitor General, said it best.

“While Ottawa’s new justice bill (Bill C-22) contains some reasonable measures, I am deeply concerned about the decision to gut tough sentencing provisions for gun crimes.

“Ottawa’s draft law removes mandatory prison sentences for serious crimes such as illegal possession of a loaded handgun, robbery with a firearm, and possession of a firearm obtained through crime.

“Removing tough, mandatory penalties for actual gun crimes undermines the very minority communities that are so often victimized by brazen gun violence. I also find it disingenuous for Ottawa to exploit a genuine issue like systemic racism to push through their soft-on-crime bills.

“For the federal government to gut sentences for real gun crimes just days after scapegoating duly-licensed, law-abiding firearms owners (Bill C-21) is especially rich.”

Even Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole managed a bland statement about the Liberals’ pre-election platform on firearms.

“I think Mr. Trudeau misleads people when he tries to suggest that buying things back from hunters and other Canadians who are law-abiding is somehow going to solve the problem of shooting and criminal gang activity in the big cities,” O’Toole said.

If gun owners were looking to the Conservative Party for strong support, I don’t think they found it in that statement.

Maybe next time.

Until then, at least I can smile knowing the Liberals’ most ardent supporters, if only for a moment, feel betrayed.