{"id":557574,"date":"2026-03-24T13:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/557574\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T13:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T13:50:14","slug":"ottawa-cautiously-optimistic-as-gun-buyback-program-deadline-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/557574\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa ‘cautiously optimistic’ as gun buyback program deadline approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ottawa is still significantly shy of the number of firearm buybacks as a key deadline approaches.<\/p>\n

The federal government says just over 51,000 firearms have been reported so far.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s far below the 136,000 it budgeted to collect before the March 31 deadline.<\/p>\n

The Public Safety Minister said he is \u201ccautiously optimistic\u201d leading up to the program deadline, which offers compensation for turning in or permanently deactivating their guns.<\/p>\n

The program is part of a broader effort that has outlawed roughly 2,500 types of firearms.<\/p>\n

Since May 2020, Ottawa has outlawed about 2,500 types of firearms, including the AR-15 and Ruger Mini-14, on the basis they belong only on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Brantford police not participating in federal gun buyback program<\/a><\/p>\n

Those prohibited weapons and devices must be either disposed of or permanently deactivated by the end of October.<\/p>\n

In October 2023, a Federal Court judge dismissed a request to strike down the firearm ban as unlawful and beyond the scope of the powers delegated to the federal cabinet.<\/p>\n

A not-for-profit advocacy organization, firearm owners, businesses, hunters and recreational and sport shooters appealed the ruling.<\/p>\n

In April 2025, the Federal Court of Appeal rejected that challenge, saying the Federal Court delivered \u201cthorough and persuasive\u201d reasons.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court of Canada agreed last week to hear an appeal of the latest ruling \u2014 a process that could take well over a year.<\/p>\n

With files from The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \u2018Our weapons are not for sale!\u2019 Protesters target Ottawa\u2019s gun buyback program<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ottawa is still significantly shy of the number of firearm buybacks as a key deadline approaches. The federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-557574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}