Canada’s government is forcing licensed and law-abiding firearm owners to surrender, export or permanently “deactivate” thousands of prohibited firearm models. Meanwhile, a criminal investigation involving former Member of Parliament Inky Mark shows Canadian authorities already possess extensive laws to pursue actual firearm trafficking and other illegal criminal conduct.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested former MP Mark, 79, after executing search warrants on July 7, 2026, at his Dauphin, Manitoba, residence. Investigators reported seizing 439 firearms, ammunition, an antique cannon and more than C$300,000 in cash, which Mark claims is from the sale of Manitoba properties. Former MP Mark faces 12 criminal code charges, including firearm trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime.
He has been released from custody. Mark denies the charges but did tell the Canadian Broadcast Corporation that “he did something stupid” and admitted he transferred firearms to an individual he has known for 30 years.
Mark, also the former mayor of Dauphin, is outspoken and critical against Canada’s Liberal Party, which dominates politics north of the border. Mark wasn’t in Canada’s Parliament when the gun confiscation bill was voted on.
Criminal Conduct Is Already Illegal
RCMP officials said investigators believe at least three of the seized firearms were illegally trafficked and one had an altered serial number. The investigation reportedly began after another Dauphin resident was charged with firearm offenses in the United States.
Those allegations are serious, but they don’t expose some previously unknown gap in Canada’s gun laws.
Firearm trafficking, altering serial numbers, unauthorized possession and violating secure storage laws are already criminal offenses. RCMP officials acknowledged that Canadians may lawfully possess large firearm collections. The legal line is crossed by criminal conduct, not by the number of firearms a licensed citizen owns.
That distinction should guide public policy.
Confiscation Moves Forward
In the meantime, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is pressing ahead with the so-called “Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program” covering more than 2,500 makes and models prohibited since May 2020. The entire scheme, begun under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has been a fiasco from the get-go.
The declaration period for law-abiding gun owners ended March 31. Collection, destruction, deactivation and compensation are already underway and are expected to continue through early fall. As of June 8, owners had declared just 68,717 firearms, including 2,520 in Manitoba.
Participation in the compensation program was technically voluntary, but compliance with the prohibitions is not. Owners who decline compensation must ultimately surrender their affected firearms without payment, export them or paying to have them permanently deactivated.
Facing measly compliance rates, the Canadian government extended its amnesty orders after the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear a challenge to the 2020 prohibitions. The amnesty will now expire 90 days after the court issues its decision, expected in 2027. The confiscation program, however, continues.
Target Criminals, Not Lawful Owners
Nothing alleged against former MP Mark suggests Canada needed to prohibit thousands of additional firearm models or confiscate lawfully acquired property to investigate him. Police used existing laws directed at trafficking, unauthorized possession and altered serial numbers. That’s precisely where enforcement belongs.
The courts will determine whether former MP Mark committed the offenses alleged against him.
The United States had their own brush with a state lawmaker convicted of trafficking firearms. California Democratic state Sen. Leland Yee was a “known champion of open government and gun control” according to an NPR report. The Brady Campaign named him to its Gun Violence Prevention Honor Roll for his bill to require unworkable microstamping. He was also part of the effort to mandate California’s “bullet button.”
Except he was also an illegal firearm trafficker. Yee accepted over $42,000 from undercover FBI agents to provide up to $2.5 million in firearms from Muslim terrorists in the Philippines and smuggle them into the United States.
The disgraced state senator was convicted of felony racketeering charges for money laundering, political corruption, arms trafficking and bribery. He spent five years in prison.
Canada’s Mark faces his own day in court, but policymakers there should nevertheless recognize the larger lesson already staring them in the face.
Public safety isn’t advanced by disarming hunters, recreational shooters and other licensed citizens who obey the law. It’s advanced by identifying criminal conduct, prosecuting those responsible and leaving lawful firearm owners alone.
Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Most all democrat politicians comit crime, either against law or morally. Its the left wing inherent ‘liberal entitlement’ nature, and when they strive for power or get power that ‘entitlement’ nature gets set free.