Nanaimo gun owner among those upset that his rifle is now banned in Canada

There is backlash tonight from people who have been ordered to surrender their guns to the federal government following a ban on assault rifles.

Yesterday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an expanded list of banned assault weapons in the wake of a mass shooting in Nova Scotia that claimed the lives of 22 people.

“You don’t need an AR-15 to bring down a deer,” said Trudeau during the announcement Friday.

The planned weapons ban covers about 1,500 guns that Trudeau called assault rifles. The Prime Minister has also said the federal government will launch a buy-back program.

But Nanaimo resident Jon Galliazzo is among the owners of a now prohibited long gun, who think the move is short-sighted.

“It’s really unfortunate that the federal government has decided to spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying back legally purchased firearms from upstanding citizens like myself instead of investing that money into mental health, border security and other things that actually make a difference,” said Galliazzo.

Galliazzo said his CZ 858 is his backup rifle when hunting. He said one time a bear charged him and two friends and that he’s convinced the now banned gun saved their lives.

“I know that the knowledge that I had five quick shots if I needed it helped me to be very calm and focused,” Galliazzo said.

Nanaimo-Ladysmith Green MP Paul Manly says he’s supportive of the government banning assault rifles.

“We don’t need military-style guns in the hands of civilians. If you’re a hunter there are guns that you can use for hunting. If you’re a target shooting there are guns you can use for that,” said Manly.

But he says he’d like to see increased efforts to ensure illegal guns aren’t imported into Canada and criminals found using guns are fully penalized under the law.

“If people use guns in the commission of a crime they need the book thrown at them,” said Manly.

However, Galliazzo remains unconvinced more guns, including his, should be prohibited.

“It’s good politics. It’s bad governance and it’s at the expense of people like me who have done nothing wrong, are not going to do anything wrong who have gone through a whole bunch of hoops to do this safely and legally.”

And while there is a program to potentially grandfather his gun’s ownership, Galliazzo says he’ll need to see the details to determine if it’s worthwhile.

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