Smith defends gun rights, vows to fight Liberal confiscation plan

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doubled down on using every power available to the provincial government to defend firearm rights and thwart the Liberals’ gun confiscation scheme.

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith doubled down on using every power available to the provincial government to defend firearm rights and thwart the Liberals’ gun confiscation scheme.

“We told the municipalities, ‘No, you can’t have a handgun ban. That is not municipal jurisdiction.’ We told the RCMP, ‘No, you cannot participate in the confiscation scheme,’” said Smith.

She added that the Alberta UCP has also told sheriffs and municipal police that anyone who wants to participate in the confiscation program would require a permit from the justice minister. However, she added that no such permit would be issued.

Her comments came in response to audience questions at the Alberta Next town hall in Lloydminster on August 27.

The audience member reminded Smith that Canada’s Public Safety Minister, Gary Anandasangree, could not answer basic questions on Canada’s gun laws. The questioner added that the minister had to recuse himself from Tamil Tigers terrorism discussions, too.

“I will not be handing them over to the federal government because I’m not supposed to give my firearms to criminals,” said the questioner.

Smith said the province will be within its rights to regulate the legal use of firearms so that Albertans can continue to own, collect, and use them for sport shooting, hunting, and other purposes.

“We’re working right now on what a legislative framework for an Alberta firearms license would look like. We’re going to fight it out because property and civil rights are our jurisdiction,” she said.

She said that Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe revealed that mail delivery services were not allowed to transport firearms. Smith said she was exploring changing legislation to ensure there are no loopholes that the Liberals can expose.

“You’ll see that us and Saskatchewan are going to do whatever we can to make sure that we’re defending firearms owners’ rights,” she said.

The federal government introduced a firearms confiscation program in 2020 through an Order in Council, making thousands of legal firearms prohibited.

Since then, the Liberals have expanded the order to ban over 2,500 firearms, with costs expected to reach nearly $2 billion.

The program was initially slated to conclude under an October 2025 amnesty, but has been pushed back yet again and is now scheduled for completion “no later than” the end of 2026.

Police unions have also voiced their opposition. Toronto Police Association President Clayton Campbell called the Liberals’ plan a “waste of resources.”

“I can’t think of a time when a legal gun has been used in a crime in this city, not one,” Campbell told the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “It’s not legal gun owners involved in crimes in the city of Toronto. It’s a small number of thugs.”

Canadians themselves remain skeptical of the policy. A previous Leger poll found that 55 per cent of Canadians believe the federal government should focus on cracking down on illegal firearms smuggled from the United States, while only 26 per cent supported banning legal firearms through buybacks.

Even Prime Minister Mark Carney has conceded that most firearms used in violent crimes come from south of the border.

“I suspect the guns used here are from the U.S.,” Carney said in July when asked about a string of shootings in Hamilton, Ontario.

Meanwhile, firearm ownership in Canada continues to grow. RCMP data show that the number of licensed gun owners rose to 2.41 million in 2024, with Alberta seeing one of the sharpest increases at 3.3 per cent.

“We just have a different approach we want to take in Alberta. And I think that that is what the Constitution allows,” Smith concluded.