Juno News - Bill Blair is targeting law-abiding gun owners

Justin Trudeau's new public safety minister, Bill Blair, has the impossible task of trying to sell a sweeping gun grab that just doesn't make sense to Canadians. Bill Blair was asked about his government's gun control plans during question period on Monday and this is what he said: "We know that there is much more that needs to be done and in particular we have spoken about the presence of military-style assault weapons having no place in Canadian society. They're designed for the battlefield and not for our communities."

00:00:00.000 Justin Trudeau's new Public Safety Minister, Bill Blair, has the impossible task of trying

00:00:11.120 to sell a sweeping gun grab that just doesn't make sense to Canadians. It's the gun grab that

00:00:18.620 was announced during the Liberals' campaign and then reiterated in the speech from the throne

00:00:23.660 this week. The government is going to prohibit what it calls military-style assault weapons,

00:00:30.280 though has not yet provided a definition for what that means. This definition will be particularly

00:00:36.060 important because assault rifles are already prohibited in Canada. What will actually be

00:00:42.480 prohibited are guns that the government simply doesn't like. Bill Blair was asked about his

00:00:49.160 government's gun control plans during question period on Monday and this is what he said.

00:00:54.440 We know that there is much more that needs to be done and in particular we have spoken about

00:00:58.520 the presence of military-style assault weapons having no place in Canadian society. They're

00:01:03.100 designed for the battlefield and not for our communities. For more than four decades,

00:01:07.740 police chiefs across the country have been calling for the banning of these weapons.

00:01:11.200 Mr. Speaker, we will continue to listen to Canadians and we will have more to say about these next steps

00:01:15.940 in the very near future. Not only promising that the plan will be announced very soon,

00:01:20.640 as in this is an imminent priority for the government, but he had the audacity to claim

00:01:25.280 that police chiefs are the ones calling for a ban. The police chiefs for four decades, he says,

00:01:31.500 have been wanting to get military-style assault weapons, as he terms them, off the streets. Now,

00:01:37.500 this is particularly interesting because just in August, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police

00:01:42.880 came out against a federal handgun ban specifically. That was what was on the table at the time.

00:01:49.200 The rationale was that gun bans just don't work and this was recognized by the association

00:01:56.140 representing Canadian police chiefs. The police chiefs that Bill Blair is now saying are behind

00:02:01.560 the government's attempt to ban guns. One of the things that Bill Blair still cannot answer

00:02:07.100 is who is going to decide. It sounds at this point like it is going to be the government

00:02:12.620 that lays out which makes and models of firearms are going to be prohibited and which will still

00:02:18.040 be allowed under Canada's already rigorous gun control scheme. Now, this is a reversal from what

00:02:24.060 Justin Trudeau so often said when criticizing the conservative approach to guns. He said that the

00:02:29.900 conservatives want politicians to decide what guns should be allowed when it should actually be up

00:02:34.980 to the experts. But now, take a listen to this answer that Bill Blair attempted to give in a

00:02:40.220 scrum outside the House of Commons.

00:02:42.180 Who will determine which guns are on this list that you are going to ban? Who's going to determine

00:02:47.540 what is a military-style assault weapon? Because there is no clear definition. Is that you?

00:02:51.400 There are clear principles that will be applied and the determination of what weapons will be

00:02:57.820 included on that list and that information will come forward when we bring forward that list.

00:03:02.220 It sounds a lot like the liberals are going to be the ones making that call. Moreover, Bill Blair says

00:03:22.400 that it's going to be an order in council. Now, this is basically a cabinet directive, meaning not

00:03:27.940 something that will be debated or discussed in parliament, meaning not something that can be

00:03:32.940 vetted in committee, not something that opposition members can challenge, something that the government

00:03:37.760 will just put in by executive fiat. Now, as for what guns are going to make it on the list, there was

00:03:43.700 one particular model that was being asked of Bill Blair and of Justin Trudeau, specifically the Ruger Mini 14.

00:03:50.760 Now, this is a non-restricted semi-automatic firearm. It shoots one bullet at a time like every other

00:03:56.820 semi-automatic firearm. It's often used in Canada for hunting. The Mini 14 can be made to look like the

00:04:04.140 AR-15. In fact, they shoot the same type of ammunition generally, the .223 round. But the Mini 14 was the

00:04:11.140 firearm used in the Le Colpolle Technique massacre, which just had its 30th anniversary earlier this month.

00:04:18.120 Trudeau said in his remarks that guns like the one used will be prohibited. Bill Blair was asked

00:04:25.380 specifically whether he would prohibit the Mini 14, which is currently non-restricted in Canada,

00:04:30.940 and he couldn't give a straight answer one way or another. This is what he said in that scrum.

00:04:35.340 There is no specific commitment on banning the Ruger Mini 14 today, at least.

00:04:40.260 Let me be very specific. We have an absolute and unwavering commitment to bring about a prohibition

00:04:45.000 of military assault weapons like the one that was used at that event and has also been used in other

00:04:50.920 tragic events.

00:04:51.600 Now, it could be that Bill Blair has no idea what the plans are. It could be that they haven't decided.

00:05:01.220 But there was a specific answer given by Bill Blair as to why the government is not being more

00:05:06.740 forthright about its plans. And he said that he doesn't want Canadians to run out and buy up guns

00:05:12.520 that are currently legal. He said this in the scrum.

00:05:15.500 When the list is published, there will be very clear articulation of what weapons will be

00:05:20.340 prohibited. But again, what I do not want to precipitate is individuals going out and acquiring

00:05:28.160 these weapons before the publishing of that list.

00:05:30.020 So the government doesn't want people to go out and buy things that are legal if they have the

00:05:34.180 licenses to do so for reasons that make no sense. Bill Blair has said in other interviews that he

00:05:40.440 doesn't want to demonize law-abiding gun owners. In fact, in an iPolitics piece, he said,

00:05:45.480 this will take up to two years to fully put into place because he wants to make sure that law-abiding

00:05:51.080 gun owners have time to comply. But he's acknowledging that law-abiding gun owners are

00:05:56.580 willing to comply. In other words, that they are not the problem, which is what we've known time and

00:06:01.940 time again, and which is why the police chiefs are not on board with a sweeping gun ban, even though

00:06:07.320 Bill Blair is trying to claim that they are. Bill Blair is simply not telling the truth when it

00:06:13.620 comes to the gun file, and it is law-abiding gun owners like me and like many of you watching who are

00:06:19.500 going to pay the price. True North is not going to give up on this fight. We're not a firearms

00:06:25.540 advocacy group, but I myself am a firearms owner, and this is a question of freedom, and it's a question

00:06:31.340 of government ineptitude when it comes to lawmakers blaming the law-abiding for the problems caused by

00:06:38.080 criminals. We are in this fight for you, but we can't do it alone. If you can chip in to support

00:06:43.420 our efforts, head on over to tnc.news slash donate and join the Andrew Lawton Heritage Club.

00:06:49.920 For True North, I'm Andrew Lawton.

Juno News - December 11, 2019

Bill Blair is targeting law-abiding gun owners

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