Narrow cardboard boxes fill an entire wall in the fortified upstairs room at Wes Winkel’s gun store.
They contain dozens of assault weapons, still in their original packaging, that have been collecting dust for close to five years. Inventory that has been paid for, and remains insured, but has been banned from public sale since the spring of 2020. Dead stock that Winkel, the owner of Ellwood Epps Sporting Goods in Orillia, Ont., figures has cost him close to a quarter-million dollars.
“The prohibited inventory is a sore spot,” said Winkel, who also serves as president of the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association (CSAAA), a gun manufacturer and retailer group. “It is definitely a hit to everyone involved.”
Last week, on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre, the Trudeau government announced the start of its assault weapon buyback program. Phase One, set to commence before the end of December, will see guns, such as those in Winkel’s storeroom, collected from retailers and manufacturers and destroyed, with set compensation being paid for each weapon.
It’s the long-delayed next step in a crackdown on assault weapons that began in the spring of 2020, following a mass shooting in Portapique, N.S., which left 22 people dead. Ottawa initially banned the sale of some 1,500 guns, later expanding the list to 2,000 weapons.
And this past week, at a press conference featuring three federal cabinet ministers, 324 more makes and models were prohibited, with the promise of more still to come.
But as it turns out, there has been another significant addition to the program — made without fanfare, or even a mention.
CBC News has learned the government has since quietly updated its website with a list of parts and components it will also be paying for. The list includes bolts, magazines, sights and grips, along with a wide assortment of barrels. The buyback prices range from $3.20 to $1,264 per part.
The move seems certain to drive the overall cost of the buyback to a new level.
“I think the cost of the program is going to go up dramatically with the inclusion of parts,” said Winkel. “There’s a lot of administrative burden, you know, from the retailers that have to package them in the manner that the government wants, from the carrier to carry them to the destruction facility and the cataloging.”
Adding parts to buyback program may close loophole
The change closes a potential loophole in the buyback plan that critics had been pointing to for years. If parts for banned guns were still available, they said, criminals might just build their own ‘ghost’ assault weapons. All that would be needed would be a 3D printer to make the receiver — a simple plastic box that houses the bullets and firing mechanism. Then the rest of the components could be sourced, either legally, or on the black market.
“If you don’t include them … if you don’t encompass all the parts, really there’s no public safety enhancement you could ever argue,” said Winkel.
Police forces across North America have been warning of the rise of ghost guns for years. (The pistol and silencer used in the recent Manhattan assassination of Brian Thompson, the CEO of a private health-care firm, were 3D printed, according to police.)
But just how big the problem is in Canada remains unclear. The RCMP doesn’t track the use of ghost guns in crimes, or keep stats on arrests connected to the homemade weapons.
A national database, however, does provide some sense of how many ghost guns have been recovered by police and other agencies, with 363 reported seizures in 2023, and 219 more over the first six months of 2024.
In a statement to CBC News, an RCMP spokesperson said the force is working with Public Safety Canada and other partners to “enhance the collection of national-level data relating to firearms crimes, including crimes involving privately manufactured firearms, to help inform our shared efforts to address firearms violence.”
The federal government has made last-minute additions of gun parts to its assault-weapon buyback program such as magazines, bolts, and grips. Critics say adding the wide range of components will only add to the program’s ballooning cost.
A CBC News request for an interview with Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc about the government’s decision to include parts and accessories in the buyback was declined.
Department officials said they are still working on updated cost figures for the program, and that they will be made available “in due course.”
Program expected to be costly
According to the most recent numbers submitted to Parliament, the federal government has spent almost $70 million to date, and has collected just a couple of dozen weapons.
In April 2021, an analysis from the parliamentary budget officer pegged the total cost at $756 million, plus administration — a figure that has likely increased since then, due to inflation and the addition of more than 800 weapons to the banned list.
The PBO’s report did not include any compensation costs for parts, accessories and ammunition. It also noted the large discrepancy between government and private sector estimates of just how many guns might need to be recovered from private individuals under Phase Two of the buyback — another potentially huge driver of costs.
Gage Haubrich, who has been tracking the program for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, compares the potential cost overruns caused by the addition of parts to the buyback program to the federal gun registry. It was started by a Liberal government, then scrapped by a Conservative one. It was an effort that was initially budgeted at $2 million, but that ended up costing more than $2 billion by 2004.
“If anything, it’s going to make it a lot more expensive,” Haubrich said.
“You know, you talk to any firearm owner, they’ll probably have just as many firearms accessories, as they do have firearms, especially for some of these really expensive guns that are going to be on this buyback list.”
But at this point, the bigger obstacle to collecting and destroying all of the banned guns may be politics.
Girding for a fight
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has promised to end what he calls a “gun grab” if his party wins the coming federal election.
And some provinces are also girding for a fight. Last year, Alberta and Saskatchewan both enacted legislation seeking to limit the buyback, requiring anyone collecting the assault weapons to obtain a provincial license, and mandating “fair” compensation for parts, accessories and ammunition.
Untraceable ghost guns, made with a 3D printer, are a growing part of crime across Canada. CBC’s Ellen Mauro gets exclusive access to how police are trying to get ahead of the trend and the criminals by making the weapons themselves.
Eric Adams, a constitutional law expert at the University of Alberta, says firearms have long been a jurisdictional battleground, with provinces asserting their rights to regulate property, and Ottawa its power to ensure public safety.
Ottawa can probably win a legal fight, he said, but may not be able to overcome delay tactics.
“Federal laws prevail if there are any conflicts with provincial laws. That’s one of the bedrock principles of federalism,” Adams said.
“But in and around these kinds of policies, provinces may very well choose not to co-operate … There will be some interesting issues if either government, for example, orders their police forces, municipal or provincial, including the RCMP, not to seize any guns or participate in any of the buyback.”
Jonathon Gatehouse can be contacted via email at jonathon.gatehouse@cbc.ca, or reached via the CBC’s digitally encrypted Securedrop system at https://www.cbc.ca/securedrop/