Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has suddenly become a gun shop owner's best sales rep.
That's the punchline of what Cassy Premack regards as a very bad joke.
The owner of KKS Tactical Supplies in Prince George has seen a massive jump in the sales of handguns in the days since legislation was introduced in the House of Commons that would put a freeze on importing, buying, selling or otherwise transferring the items.
Over the course of a week, Premack sold about $50,000 worth of stock - prices range from $400 to $2,000 with most selling for just under $1,000 - and as of Thursday, she was down to just two in her display case.
While she has more on order, Premack is not expecting they will arrive anytime soon as distributors scramble to meet demand from shops across Canada.
"It's just been insanity, honestly," Premack said. "And we see that anytime Trudeau talks about firearm bans...the hard part is it's not sustainable. You have all this income coming in but I can't replace it with anything."
If the legislation, which was introduced on May 30 as Bill C-21, proceeds as expected, it will become law by sometime this fall. Handguns have accounted for 15-20 per cent of Premack's business.
She's no fan of the legislation which would effectively put a cap on the number of legally-owned handguns in Canada.
It's the third iteration of ideas the federal Liberals have put forward over the last two years, starting with giving municipalities and then provinces the power to ban handgun sales before making it nationwide.
Not that Premack supports any of the proposals but if she was given a chance to pick which poison, it would be leaving it up to each municipality given the concern handguns have raised in more populated centres like Toronto and Surrey. In Prince George, she doubts it's not so big an issue.
Handguns are already subject to restrictions in how they're used, Premack noted. For the most part, they can be fired only in a registered range and are subject to specifics around how they can be stored and transported. And because they're considered a restricted firearm, you must pass an additional course to obtain a licence to own one.
So-called "straw purchases," where a person licenced to own a restricted firearm purchases one on behalf of someone who doesn't occurs, Premack said, but maintained most of the illegally-owned handguns in Canada are smuggled in from the United States.
Premack said the focus should be on limiting the motives for committing a violent crime in the first place, be it an underlying trauma or a sense of desperation due to poverty.
"I see it as a social issue," she said and noted a suicide prevention hotline, as promoted by Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty, is still not up and running roughly 1 1/2 years after it idea won unanimous approval in the House of Commons.
Premack said she's already stuck with more than $70,000 of stock she can't sell due to a May 2020 ban on certain models of so-called "assault-style" firearms.
"I can't sell it, I can't return it, I can't do anything with it. I sit on it waiting for a potential buyback, waiting for some type of instruction and the federal government, to this date, has not given any instructions on a buyback program for businesses, only for firearms owners," Premack said.
Sales in ammunition related to those firearms also dropped, Premack noted, and worried a similar knock-on effect will happen if the freeze on handguns becomes law.
"It's a huge risk and it's about balancing that," Premack said of ordering in more handguns. "I know a lot of retailers are saying 'I'm not bringing anything else in because I'm sitting on product I can't sell from two years ago.'"
In a statement, Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies MP Bob Zimmer said the introduction of Bill C-21, has shown that the "NDP-Liberal government has once again chosen to target our highly-vetted firearms owners instead of focusing on efforts to combat criminals and illegal firearms."
