Juno News - December 25, 2019Adam Vaughan doesn’t know anything about guns
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Summary
In his response to a question in the House of Commons, Conservative MP Adam Vaughn indicated that he doesn't actually know what guns are legal and illegal in Canada. Andrew Lutton explains why this is problematic, and why the Liberals should have been honest about their agenda.
Transcript
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Liberal MP Adam Vaughn just doesn't seem to know anything about guns. Now this is problematic
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because he was the one tasked with standing up in the House of Commons to defend what the federal
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Liberal government is doing on the firearms file. He stood up in response to concerns that were
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tabled by Leanne Rood, the new Conservative Member of Parliament for Lambton-Kent Middlesex.
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And in his response to this, outlining what it is that the government's doing on the firearms file,
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he indicated that he doesn't actually know what guns are legal and what guns are illegal in Canada.
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The reality is that military assault weapons do not belong in civilian hands. Nobody goes hunting
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with an AK-47 and I think as a Member of Parliament remarked during the campaign, if you're going
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hunting with an AK-47 you might want to think about getting a new hobby because you're not a very good
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hunter. He says that you shouldn't be able to use an AK-47 when you're hunting, which is valid given
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that in Canada the AK-47 is prohibited and has been for quite some time, and that you can't use
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restricted rifles when you're hunting. Well no, you can't because it's illegal to do so already.
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There's no reason you couldn't or shouldn't be able to. The government has just already determined
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that that's not allowed. His entire argument seems to rest on this idea of what Bill Blair and Justin
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Trudeau are calling military-style assault weapons, a term that they've made up that actually doesn't
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have any real meaning because the guns that the military actually uses are already prohibited in
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Canada. You cannot, as a civilian firearms owner, have a gun that shoots in fully automatic fashion.
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But this is precisely the problem here. People like Adam Vaughn don't want to let facts get in
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the way of the argument. They don't like guns, they don't like the people that like guns, and that's
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that. They don't want to have any further discussion on it. But Adam Vaughn actually doubled down on his
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lack of firearms knowledge when someone took him to task on Twitter for that little comment he made in
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the House of Commons. And they were talking about this idea that, well, the military-style assault
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weapons are already off the streets. They're already out of the hands of firearms owners. And this is
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Why are you worried about banning a weapon you don't seem to think you can own? Military assault
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weapons don't belong in civilian hands. And then later on, he said they are restricted but available.
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No one needs a military assault weapon, period, just as no one needs a bazooka. Again, he is just
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using that term military assault weapon to describe gun that Adam Vaughn doesn't like,
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which is a category that unfortunately is very, very large. In fact, as he's a Toronto MP,
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it's probably difficult to find a gun he is okay with. But then he goes down this road and says that
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the AR in AR-15 stands for assault rifle. He said before they changed it to Armalite rifle. Well,
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it's always meant Armalite rifle after the original design of the firearm. And more importantly,
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the AR does not stand for assault rifle because the AR-15 is not an assault rifle. And that's why
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it is restricted and not prohibited in Canada right now. Now, if the Liberals are hellbent on
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disarming Canadians and targeting law-abiding gun owners, at least be honest about their agenda.
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They simply don't like guns. Now, I think that's an objectionable position, but at least it would be
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more intellectually honest than what they're doing now, which is trying to muddle what it is that is
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actually legal in Canada. By their own definition, they're advocating for things that are already
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banned. So mission accomplished. For True North, I'm Andrew Lutton.