Saskatoon gun shop owner opposes federal ban

Ban on assault style weapons Watch: CTV Saskatoon’s Matt Young brings us the reaction from Saskatchewan.

SASKATOON — Ben Abramoff has owned Extreme Range Outfitters in Saskatoon for just over a year and does not think the federal Liberal government's ban on assault style firearms will do much cut to down on crime.

"I think they need tougher laws on criminals. Not tougher laws on law abiding gun owners like myself and my employees."

Effective immediately, licensed gun owners cannot sell, transport or import assault style weapons, which Ottawa are reclassifying as prohibited. The weapons have been used in some past Canadian shootings including the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal in 1989.

Ben Abramoff has owned Extreme Range Outfitters in Saskatoon for just over a year and does not think the federal Liberal government's ban on assault style firearms will do much cut to down on crime.

"I think they need tougher laws on criminals. Not tougher laws on law abiding gun owners like myself and my employees."

Effective immediately, licensed gun owners cannot sell, transport or import assault style weapons, which Ottawa are reclassifying as prohibited. The weapons have been used in some past Canadian shootings including the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal in 1989.

The ban will likely cut into his business as he is now stuck with stock he can’t sell, Abramoff said.

"It's not that we're murderers. We are husbands and fathers and grandpas and people that hunt. And that's what we've done since we were raised."

Current owners will have the ability to grandfather in their ownerships, and there is a two-year amnesty period for owners to take part in a buyback program.

"The use, purchase, the sale of military style assault weapons in this country ends today. The numbers of those military style assault weapons in this country will only go down from here," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The prime minister spoke about how every Canadian can remember the day they realized how “a man with a gun could irrevocably alter our lives for the worse.”

Citing a list of mass shootings in Canada, Trudeau said they “shape our identity” and “stain our conscience,” and are happening more and more often.

Federal Justice Minister David Lametti said there will be an exemption for Indigenous people exercising hunting rights, and for those who use one of the guns to hunt until they can acquire a "suitable replacement."

"By doing that and saying that, they acknowledge that First Nations people of this country, of these lands, are First Nation people," said Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron.

Saskatoon Police Service told CTV News that no semi-automatic weapons are believed to have been used in homicides in the city last year,

In a statement Premier Scott Moe was critical of the move.

“I am extremely disappointed by today’s announcement by the federal government of a firearms ban that only serves to penalize law abiding gun owners. Our government will have more to say in regards to this federal policy in the coming days.”

With files from CTVNews.ca