Canada’s got a stockpile of WWII-era Browning Hi-Power pistols—locally produced in Toronto under the Inglis banner as the Maple Leaf variant—and they’re pondering the scrap heap for them, while Ukraine’s giving a polite but firm nyet to the surplus offer. These aren’t your grandpa’s dusty relics; the Canadian Hi-Powers were rugged workhorses, chambered in 9mm with those distinctive fixed sights and high-capacity mags that influenced modern combat pistols. Built from 1944 to 1945 to arm Allied forces, around 126,000 were cranked out before production halted, and many survived in military storage. Now, with Ukraine drowning in modern aid but picky about vintage iron, Ottawa’s eyeing the melting pot, potentially wiping out a chunk of history that gun enthusiasts worldwide covet.

For the 2A community, this is a red-flag wake-up call on government attitudes toward surplus firearms. Canada’s not exactly a bastion of gun rights— they’ve got red-flag laws on steroids and a history of buybacks that turned classics into landfill fodder. Scrapping these Hi-Powers echoes the UK’s handgun ban bonfire in ’97, where functional arms became scrap metal to appease anti-gun hysterics. Imagine if the U.S. ATF pulled this on M1 Garands or 1911s: outrage would erupt, lawsuits would fly, and collectors would rally. The irony? These pistols are safer in civilian hands—meticulously maintained by aficionados—than rusting in some depot, only to be destroyed for zero practical gain. Ukraine’s snub makes sense; they’re fighting a high-tech war, not reenacting Normandy. But for us, it’s a collector’s dream slipping away—prices on surviving Inglis guns already hover at $1,500-$3,000, and this could spike demand.

The implications scream import now before it’s too late. Pro-2A advocates should push for U.S. importation deals, framing it as preserving history against nanny-state erasure. It’s a chance to bolster our supplies of proven 9mm platforms that inspired everything from the CZ-75 to modern polymer wonders. Don’t let bureaucratic torches dim this legacy—grab one if you can, and keep fighting the good fight for the right to keep and bear arms, surplus or otherwise.