Doug Ford: ‘Gang bangers’ are the problem, not law-abiding gun owners

On Friday, the Trudeau government announced that 1,500 models of firearms are now considered illegal. The "assault-style" now forbidden weapons include the popular AR-15. It's estimated that $600 million will be spent on buying these guns back from Canadian citizens.

"The federal government has set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to buy back guns from legally licensed gun owners, responsible legal licensed gun owners,” Ford said during a press conference on Saturday. “I can’t help but think the money could be put to much better use hunting down criminals and stopping illegal guns at our borders."

"Rather than giving these nasty criminals, these gang bangers a slap on the wrist, and they laugh at our police, let’s start giving them some tough sentences. Don’t give them a slap on the wrist and then try to point the finger at legal law-abiding gun owners and spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, for what?" Ford said.

Ford also suggested that the Trudeau government plan will not affect Toronto's gun crime problem.

"Do you think gun violence is going to go down in Toronto—I don’t believe it’s going to go down in Toronto based on taking guns from legal gun owners. What I do think will drop the crime is start throwing these guys in jails, protecting our communities, protecting our kids from these gang bangers, that’s what going to stop it," Ford concluded.