LETHBRIDGE, AB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is applauding the move by the Alberta government to defend firearms owners and taxpayers by deterring the seizure of legally owned guns.

“Premier Danielle Smith is making the right move by trying to shield thousands of Alberta firearms owners from Prime Minister Trudeau’s wasteful gun grab,” said Kris Sims, Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Police say the massive seizure of rifles and shotguns from hunters and ranchers will not make Canadians safer and history shows us this gun grab will also be a huge waste of taxpayers’ money.”

On Thursday, Alberta Attorney General Tyler Shandro said the province will assume jurisdiction of firearms-related criminal code cases, rather than relinquishing the duty to the federal government. This decision was made because the province believes Trudeau’s firearms seizure goes too far.

“These (Ottawa’s) actions will criminalize hundreds of thousands of Canadians overnight, the majority of which reside in western Canada and it's becoming increasingly clear that the federal Liberal government is pursuing a strategy to ban all legal firearms ownership,” said Shandro.

Alberta’s Chief Firearms Officer warned Ottawa’s recent amendments to Bill C-21 would criminalise many law-abiding firearms owners across the country, and the attempted confiscation would be wasteful.

“The precious resources taxpayers entrust to us are not unlimited and we must direct them to where they will do the most good,” said Teri Bryant, Alberta’s CFO. “This means rejecting measures that are founded on sensationalistic calls for restrictions that are costly, ineffective and lacking in any evidentiary basis.”

The failed federal long gun registry imposed by the federal government in the 1990s cost Canadian taxpayers more than $1 billion before it was finally abandoned and scrapped.

“Canada is more than $1 trillion in debt and the Trudeau government has a serious spending problem,” said Sims. “The last thing we need is another seizure of people’s property that turns into an expensive boondoggle.”

The CTF has a petition against the Trudeau government’s attempted firearms confiscation, which can be viewed HERE.