This is my humble opinion and my opinion only. I started my gun collection and leisure shooting almost 20 years ago. I only had one kid at the time. Over the course of the last 17 or so years, two other kids came along. That mostly contributed to my temporarily shelving shooting sports / leisurely shooting, etc. And the guns sat in my cabinet unused for many, many years - close to 10 or so maybe. I too thought about liquidating them, selling them to get some funds, especially a number of years ago when I was going through a brutal divorce. I have ammo from all those years when I first started and when I moved last year, I was seriously thinking of just selling it all, especially given the fact that my range had closed up, my favourite gun store had shut down well before covid, and the airgun forums that in which I used to participate have long since gone by the way of the doh-doh... The social winds are painting gun owners as racist radical fanatics that are waiting for the zombie apocalypse - the political winds are against us in Canada and the US. And I justified that well, it's been so long, I am much older (close to 50) and maybe it's time to sell everything off. So I was very close to just liquidating all my guns and ammo.
I am glad I didn't make that decision.
What it came down to is this. One night as I was unpacking all my books to put on shelves at my new home, I went through the 8-9 boxes of gun books (technical, historical, political, how-to, philosophical everything in between) unpacking them and putting them on the shelf, when I remembered what drew me to the hobby and community in the first place. The pride of ownership. The ability to hone and practice skills like marksmaship, discipline. Knowing the truth that most of what the media says about guns and gunowners are flat out wrong, and the subsequent discussions I have had over the years with family and friends to educate them on objective truth about firearms and firearms owners. The fact that I will not let the government or societal circumstances dictate what I can and cannot have, given that I am a law abiding citizen. Plus my parents, who immigrated from Hong Kong in the 1970s, voted Liberal Party all their lives until Justin Trudeau when they switched to Conservative, and my Dad has gone from believing the lies about guns and gun owners to being an advocate of responsible gun ownership - and the fact that I just enjoy our rich history of firearms and the the associated rights to own arms (remembering some countries don't even allow their citizens to own guns). Ultimately I said covid or no covid, I am not selling my guns. In fact, I bought two more black rifles this year, and loaded up on ammo, to support my new local gun shop. There is nowhere else I can go in and shoot the breeze with the owner of the shop for literally hours, chatting about anything firearms related. It is like walking into a house with the sweet smell of freshly baked cookies.
My suggestion - don't sell your guns. There will be a time where people will rise up, and vote out the politicians who infringe on the people's rights. I don't want to get political but when Obama became president, I loaded up on my ammo thinking the days of smaller government and the people having their rights back are over. I was pleasantly surprised in 2016 when the US voted otherwise. Our time in Canada will come again. Covid won't be here forever. The guns may collect dust for now, but that's OK. That being said, I do agree with some of the other posters in not selling ALL of the guns, maybe some of them. I keep some guns for sentimental value, but just like some people, there are some that I bought that I had second thoughts on, from a quality / handling perspective. And of course, unless you have unlimited storage in your safe or gun cabinet, selling some to make room for others will be a good way to spur on active continued interest in firearms.
Of course, you have to do what's best for you and your family and circumstances, but I can share that I was in a similar situation and glad I didn't pull the trigger (no pun intended) in liquidating my holdings. As it turns out, it is very likely that my daughter who has expressed a succinct affinity for all things firearms will one day likely inherit my guns and tell her kids about the historical tradition and pride of ownership. That to me is enough reason to hold on to them, to pass them and the tradition on to the next generation.
