I can't imagine how this could be any more divisive

[robkelk]

I took a closer look at the order. (Which, by the way, is a Ministerial Order, not an Order In Council - which simply means that it came from a particular member of the Cabinet instead of from the Cabinet as a whole.)

Importing, sales, and purchases will all be prohibited, except for a few special cases that I haven't been able to find the definitions of (and probably won't until the regulations are actually posted).

And, the last time a reputable pollster did a poll, 67% of Canadians were in favour of a handgun ban. (The percentage is lower for a ban on rifles - there's still a hunting lobby in Canada.) So there isn't likely to be too much blowback on the regulations themselves, but the way they were put in place is another matter entirely.