Are the Liberals really coming to take people’s guns? If they are, do they know it?

In today’s Big Story podcast, Bill C-21 represents a slight change in Canada’s approach to gun control, but an amendment to Bill C-21 would see it overhauled entirely. In theory, the bill is intended to ban “assault-style” weapons. In practice it could ban hundreds of guns that have been legal to own for decades.

Matt Gurney is a print and broadcast journalist, and the cofounder of The Line. He joins us to discuss the how gun control has evolved in Canada over the past few decades, and speculate about how the Liberal party may react as the support for their bill seems to evaporate.

“The Liberals are normally the best at gun politics in this country, they aren’t this time,” he said.”My gut feeling is that they’re looking to find some way to either abandon this, or at least walk it back a bit.”

As you might imagine, this is not going over well with military gun owners, hunters and others who have used firearms safely and legally for many years. And the Liberals may now walk back the proposed amendment. But the big question here is this: How did a party that has made a ton of political hay on gun policy walk right into this mess with its eyes closed?

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