A pro-gun lobby group says the federal government’s efforts to ban a long list of weapons are driven by ideology rather than a desire to protect the public.
But the Liberal government counters that its only goal is to ban weapons designed to kill people. He adds that hunters will still have the choice of using thousands of other types of rifles that are still permitted.
The government wants to include in law a permanent definition of what constitutes a prohibited assault weapon in its law to strengthen gun control currently being studied by the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.
This new measure would enhance the previous ban adopted in May 2020 which included a list of more than 1,500 models of weapons and variants of what the government considers to be assault weapons. This includes the better known models like the AR-15 and the Ruger Mini-14.
According to the president of the Canadian Coalition for Gun Rights, Rod Giltaca, the government is going after millions of licensed gun owners who have done nothing to deserve this. He made the comments at a press conference on Wednesday.
He added that the lack of evidence to support these measures would be a “glaring” indication that it was all an ideological affair.
“We clearly saw all of this coming because we’ve said from the start that their plan is to ban all citizen possession of firearms in Canada,” he alleged.
The pro-arms group’s vice-president of public relations, Tracey Wilson, says the government should go back to the drawing board and seriously consider what needs to be done to make the country safer.
“It’s pretty clear they’ve created quite a mess,” she said. It doesn’t appease anyone. It does not have a significant beneficial impact on public safety. »
In parliamentary committee, Liberal MP Taleeb Noormohamed insisted this week that there was no intention to attack hunters. Instead, the government seeks to target “weapons that must be banned because they are intended to steal lives — to kill humans.”
By incorporating a permanent definition of an assault weapon into law, the government’s intention is to prevent manufacturers from circumventing the law by slightly modifying their models to put them back on the Canadian market.
Among the technical specifications enshrined in the law, there is talk of a semi-automatic weapon or carbine designed to accommodate a detachable magazine that can hold more than five cartridges.
The most recent list of weapons covered by the ban, tabled as an amendment to the committee, sparked a debate on what should and should not be included.
All this stems from the addition in the definition of criteria on the diameter of the holes and on the muzzle energy at detonation.
For the Conservatives, the government’s definition amounts to the largest ban on hunting weapons in Canadian history.
Conservative MP Eric Melillo told the committee this week that the ban would not solve the problem it seeks to solve.
Mr. Melillo argued that depriving hunters of their weapons, including Indigenous people, would not make cities safer.
In reaction, Liberal MP Taleeb Noormohamed cited Justice Department data indicating that once the definition is adopted, up to 20,000 firearm models would remain accessible for hunting.
“I just want to clarify any misinformation that may be circulating about our intentions to ban hunting weapons,” he said.