Efforts to ban assault-style firearms mired in ‘disinformation,’ gun control group says – National | 24CA News

A outstanding voice for stricter gun management is poised to inform MPs the federal authorities’s efforts to outlaw assault-style firearms have grow to be mired in disinformation.

The group PolySeSouvient plans to look at a House of Commons committee Tuesday to help the federal authorities’s plan to legislatively enshrine a definition of weapons thought of unsafe for civilian use.

PolySeSouvient consists of college students and graduates of Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique, the place a gunman killed 14 ladies with a Ruger Mini-14 in 1989.

The federal Liberals banned the gun, together with some 1,500 different firearm fashions and variants, via an order-in-council in May 2020, saying they haven’t any place in sport capturing or looking.

Ottawa moved final November to construct on the ban by together with an evergreen definition of such firearms in a gun-control invoice that additionally incorporates measures on handguns, licence revocations and smuggling operations.

But the Liberals withdrew amendments outlining the definition earlier this month, after criticism from Tory MPs and firearm advocates who stated it will prohibit generally used looking rifles and shotguns.

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Raquel Dancho, the Conservative public security critic, stated in November that the proposed definition forged a really broad internet _ the “most significant hunting rifle ban in the history of Canada.”

The public security committee that’s reviewing the invoice now plans to listen to from numerous teams and people in regards to the shelved amendments, with the goal of crafting new wording.

PolySeSouvient maintains that the preliminary method was essentially sound, however ended up being clouded by complicated language and faulty or deceptive claims.

“While we agree with critics that say the process surrounding their introduction was problematic, we believe that in substance, they were generally solid and would not have prohibited most if not all the hunting models showcased by opponents of stronger gun control,” the group stated in a Feb. 9 letter to Liberal MP Ron McKinnon, who chairs the committee.

PolySeSouvient, which made its letter public this week, says the echoing of gun foyer claims has contributed to unfounded concern amongst hunters, regardless that their firearms would very seemingly not have been prohibited by the proposed measures.

The group says a key problem is “the lack of clarity surrounding these amendments.”

“The legislative proposals were particularly difficult to understand, as gun classification is in and of itself a complex subject,” PolySeSouvient’s letter says. “This has allowed a lot of disinformation to flourish.”

What opponents have failed to acknowledge is that solely variations with a 20-millimetre bore or larger, akin to a grenade launcher, or with a muzzle vitality of 10,000 joules, which may pierce army tools and buildings, could be prohibited, the group says.

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According to the federal government, such firearms are primarily designed to supply mass human casualties or trigger important property injury at lengthy ranges, and their potential energy exceeds secure or respectable civilian use.

Some have expressed concern that, ought to a mannequin be talked about within the amendments’ newest prolonged checklist, all variations could be prohibited.

“However, most if not all the models named by those opposing the amendment are not actually affected by the amendment,” PolySeSouvient’s letter says. “We fully support reviewing the language of the original proposals to make it simpler and less confusing.”

Among these firearms is the Ruger No. 1.

Murray Smith, a technical specialist with the RCMP’s Canadian Firearms Program, instructed the committee in early December that the Ruger No. 1 rifles “are prohibited if, and only if, they are chambered for a calibre that produces muzzle energies in excess of 10,000 joules.”

“Other Ruger No. 1 rifles, which are chambered for different calibres that do not produce that level of energy, will remain in the existing category, which, broadly speaking, is non-restricted,” he stated.

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The Canadian Firearms Program reviewed PolySeSouvient’s evaluation of the amendments on the request of The Canadian Press, and didn’t dispute the substance of the group’s findings.

Upon introducing the invoice final spring, the Liberals introduced a plan to implement a freeze on importing, shopping for, promoting or in any other case transferring handguns to assist scale back firearm-related violence.

Federal laws geared toward capping the variety of handguns in Canada are actually in impact.

The invoice incorporates measures that may reinforce the handgun freeze. The laws would additionally permit for elimination of gun licences from individuals committing home violence or engaged in legal harassment, equivalent to stalking, in addition to enhance most penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking to 14 years from 10.

However, committee scrutiny of those parts of the invoice has largely been derailed by the uproar over the assault-style firearm definition.

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