Did I mention I was a "proud progressive"? I don't recall that, and I don't think I would label myself as such. Progressive? Sure, but getting more and more conservative with my age. Though I'm actually an enigma in that my time in the navy did not endear me toward soup (though I love a good Seafood Chowder).
I think what you, and many on here, fail to appreciate just how much of a non-issue gun ownership is for the vast majority of Canadians. The latest numbers I could find indicate that up to 26% of households have guns, but in terms of individuals, only about 7% of Canadians own guns. So, already there isn't that many Canadians who really care about gun ownership. Now the mistake I think you and others on here are making is assuming that those 7%, which is already a pretty small number, are a monolithic block that are all hardcore Liberal hating, pro-property, pro-gun absolutists; they are not. Included in this number are supporters of every party. Included in this numbers are people who probably AGREE with the Liberal policy. Included in this number are probably even those who agree with the position that semi-automatics have no real use-case and are fine to see them go bye bye. So, if you remove THOSE people form the 7%, and then just look at the Liberal voting gun owners, how many are there actually who would "be embarrassed" by this policy?
Now, you probably do have supporters from even non-gun owning, who think this buy-back program is utter bullshit, and that taking away legal guns from harmless and law-abiding gun owners won't do shit to help with gun violence, but it's not enough to make a "splash" in the Liberal calculus.