In 2020, the Canadian government banned some 125,000 privately owned semi-automatic rifles, and now, with the grace period to get rid of them ending, the proposed reimbursement prices have been announced.

As previously reported by Guns.com, in May 2020, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a sweeping gun ban on over 1,500 models of “military-style assault weapons." The ban prohibited the use of those weapons with a government buy-back program on the horizon which would result in confiscation. Parliament was suspended at the time of the ban, due to COVID-19, resulting in no opposition to the proposal. Trudeau used an Order of Council, roughly akin to an Executive Order here in the States, to pass the ban.

Widespread peaceful opposition from Canada's over 2 million gun owners has since fallen on deaf ears. Meanwhile, gun shops in the country stuck with unsellable inventory are struggling to survive.

Last week, Public Safety Canada, the government entity tasked with emergency management, national security, and emergency preparedness, announced the proposed compensation amounts for individual firearm owners "to ensure these firearms are safely and permanently removed from our communities." The agency said it was based on market factors. 

The 1,500 affected variants are classed into 11 broad categories, each with its own "buyback" schedule. Below are the categories and prices, in Canadian dollars (at the current rate, a Canadian dollar is worth about $0.78 U.S.): 

• AR Platform    $1,337
• CX4 Storm        $1,317
• CZ Scorpion    $1,291
• M14 Rifle        $2,612
• Robinson Armament    $2,735
• Ruger Mini-14    $1,407
• SG550 and SG551    $6,209
• SIG Sauer MCX, MPX    $2,369
• VZ.58            $1,139
• Firearms with a >20mm bore diameter    $2,684
• Firearms with a muzzle energy >10,000 Joules (e.g., 50 BMG) $2,819

The proposed amounts are open to public feedback through the end of August. The current amnesty ends in October 2023.

Naturally, options are few in terms of compliance as all legal gun owners in Canada are licensed and the affected guns, classified as "restricted" are registered because of a 1993 law. Say it with me: registration leads to what again? 

In other Canadian gun news, Trudeau's government in May announced he was moving for a national "freeze" on the ability to buy, sell, transfer, or import handguns anywhere in the country. There are some 1.1 million registered handguns in Canada, a figure that, according to government statistics, rose 71 percent between 2010 and 2020. 

Banner image: The humble Mini-14, of which at least 16,000 are legally owned in Canada – for now – is on the government’s ban list, even when registered.