Juno News - May 05, 2020


Gun lobby responds to ＂duplicitous＂ Liberal gun ban


Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

179.98434

Word count

2,760

Sentence count

182

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On this episode of the Gun Rights Matters podcast, host Andrew McIntosh is joined by Rod Giltaka, CEO and Executive Director of the Canadian Firearms Rights Foundation (CCFR), to discuss Bill Blair's assault rifle ban and the push to have him removed from office.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 One of the things that has come out of this just ridiculous announcement from Friday
00:00:10.120 has been a bit of unity from the gun rights community.
00:00:13.220 And one particular push is to get Bill Blair out of his job.
00:00:17.780 I want to talk about this and some other aspects of this
00:00:19.920 with Rod Giltaka, CEO and Executive Director of the CCFR.
00:00:24.600 Rod, thanks for joining me today.
00:00:26.420 Thanks for having me, Andrew.
00:00:27.140 So let's talk first off about Bill Blair here,
00:00:30.380 because every time Bill Blair has said something about guns as the Liberals have been planning this,
00:00:35.360 it's typically been wrong from, you know, talking about the assault rifle issue,
00:00:39.300 talking about how police are apparently pushing for this,
00:00:42.220 even though most of the comments I've seen have been against this type of gun control.
00:00:47.220 Why is Bill Blair, in your view, the problem here?
00:00:51.020 Well, Bill Blair has conducted himself.
00:00:54.840 He's been very disingenuous.
00:00:57.940 He's pushed just clear.
00:01:01.640 I'm trying to watch my language.
00:01:03.140 He's lied to Canadians time and time again.
00:01:05.220 Forget about watching the language when it comes to Bill Blair.
00:01:07.360 And he's lied to me in person when we had the infamous Bill Blair video.
00:01:14.460 And he's just, yeah, he's just acted in such a way that it's beneath the office of a government minister.
00:01:21.640 And Canadians, whether they know it or not, are, they're the victims of it.
00:01:26.580 A point I raised earlier in the show is that the Liberals made a big stink back in,
00:01:31.620 I think it was 2014, about how it should be police and not politicians that are making these decisions.
00:01:37.100 And it's interesting that now it seems like all politicians should be the ones having the power in their eyes.
00:01:43.140 Well, of course, right?
00:01:44.120 So it's, again, they say one thing and they do another.
00:01:46.880 The duplicity of the Trudeau government is actually worse than I've ever seen in my life.
00:01:53.140 And I've been around a little while.
00:01:55.280 But, again, everything's for a political purpose.
00:01:58.560 Leveraging Nova Scotia, what happened there, that story was not a gun control story.
00:02:03.760 But nothing is out of bounds for this government.
00:02:07.580 So let's talk about the response.
00:02:09.480 Because I've spent a bunch of the show already complaining.
00:02:12.920 And I think there's reason to do that and talking about why things are wrong.
00:02:16.220 But I also don't want this to become a point of defeat for gun owners in Canada who number in the millions here.
00:02:22.760 And I know that a lot of people have focused on the fact that it was an order in council and not going through parliament.
00:02:28.820 I get concerned with that approach to it.
00:02:32.080 Because I know that if they do go through parliament, they're going to get the votes.
00:02:35.780 It's that simple right now.
00:02:37.180 So I don't want to make that the linchpin of this.
00:02:39.900 But is there a response here that doesn't involve a change of government?
00:02:43.840 Well, they are more than legally entitled to file OICs.
00:02:51.520 They can do that.
00:02:52.260 The CCFR spent all weekend talking with the legal counsel and outside counsel as well to see what can be done.
00:03:02.420 We're working on that.
00:03:03.820 We should have an answer shortly on whether there's anything.
00:03:06.780 But the government's legally allowed to do that.
00:03:09.340 And when it comes to legislation, they have a majority government.
00:03:12.820 The bloc will vote any way that the liberals ask them to vote if there's something in it for Quebec.
00:03:16.620 They are a provincial-centric federal party.
00:03:20.360 So, you know, honestly, the only way to get our rights back or even just to get these rifles back from this most recent ban is just a complete change of government.
00:03:32.100 And not only that, but to hold the government that we elect accountable.
00:03:36.600 No easy answers, Andrew.
00:03:40.480 What do you make of the double standard ingrained in this between Indigenous Canadians and non-Indigenous Canadians?
00:03:46.080 Because this is a point that I feel kind of undercuts what the liberals are saying, which is that the guns themselves rather than the owners are the problem.
00:03:54.240 Well, the duplicity of the Trudeau government, right, in action again.
00:04:00.020 But, you know, when it comes to that, I've had a few people ask about that, how I feel about Aboriginals being able to hold on to their guns.
00:04:07.940 I think they're talking specifically about the firearms that were previously non-restricted.
00:04:12.840 They're not talking about ARs.
00:04:14.440 Aboriginals were never allowed to hunt with ARs, regardless, you know, as far as I'm aware.
00:04:18.960 And, you know, we sat down to a technical briefing right after this happened with public safety.
00:04:26.380 And basically the situation there is that the Aboriginals who are hunting with any of these guns, let's say it's a Stag 10 or something,
00:04:34.460 so they find a suitable replacement.
00:04:38.500 So I don't think specifically it's like, OK, all you guys are exempt.
00:04:42.080 I don't think it's really like that.
00:04:43.180 It's not that I want to defend them, but I don't think that's the way it was framed.
00:04:47.400 And one of the other reasons why you saw this and you also saw a two-year amnesty and was overtly communicated to us during that briefing was the government has no plan.
00:04:59.440 They have no buyback plan.
00:05:00.600 They have no nothing.
00:05:01.920 And they had nothing to offer us.
00:05:04.380 So what they did was, you know, it's funny because I was doing interviews all morning since 3 in the morning this morning.
00:05:10.060 And, you know, I was asked repeatedly, you know, what do you think of the timing of this?
00:05:15.620 And I said the timing was purely political.
00:05:17.820 The liberals are leveraging the suffering and the pain of Canadians to limit opposition to something that they shouldn't have done in the first place.
00:05:24.680 And then the answer is, well, they promised to do this.
00:05:27.380 I'm like, yeah, five years ago they've been promising, but they waited till now.
00:05:31.100 And then you look at the regulation and it's extremely rushed.
00:05:33.580 So, you know, this is the state of the Liberal government of Canada right now.
00:05:38.140 That's actually a great point you raise about the lack of a plan.
00:05:41.320 Because when Justin Trudeau was answering some of the questions or doing his version of that on Friday,
00:05:47.480 one of the things that he had pointed out was that we were going to be doing this anyway.
00:05:51.400 And we were just getting ready to put it out before the pandemic happened.
00:05:55.960 And you're right that if that were true, there would be a comprehensive plan, not just a list of 1,500 guns or, you know, variants of guns just thrust out the door.
00:06:07.220 So if it were the case that this was farther along, then why isn't there more to show for it?
00:06:13.420 Yeah, there's nothing to show for it.
00:06:14.840 It's a plan that's cobbled together.
00:06:17.280 People in our community are very detail-oriented.
00:06:19.940 I'm sure you're aware of that.
00:06:21.700 So I've seen posts on Facebook about, like, well, what's AR15.com.com?
00:06:27.380 How is that an AR model of AR?
00:06:30.380 So there's all kinds of mistakes and there's things that are left off the list.
00:06:36.120 And it's just, yeah, it's a mess.
00:06:38.320 Very similar to a lot of things that this crew does.
00:06:43.280 But I don't know.
00:06:44.720 Again, it's all about politics.
00:06:46.400 And, unfortunately, gun owners are sitting there no matter how much they comply, no matter how rules they follow, how many rules they follow, no matter how ridiculous.
00:06:56.060 We're the whipping boy for liberals in Canada, unfortunately.
00:06:59.980 We're in a time right now of unparalleled and unrivaled economic challenge.
00:07:04.760 You've got businesses that are shutting their doors, many of which won't be able to reopen.
00:07:08.700 And gun stores have, by and large, been, I think, deemed non-essential across Canada.
00:07:13.500 You know, when a lot of them reopen, what will the economic impact be?
00:07:17.460 Or will there be an economic impact of this ban?
00:07:20.220 I don't know how much as a percentage of gun sales AR-15s and mini-14s are.
00:07:25.440 But are you hearing from your members, because I know you've got members who are vendors here, that this will strain them?
00:07:32.760 Well, anything right now is a strain.
00:07:34.680 Like, literally anything.
00:07:36.000 And these are unprecedented economic times.
00:07:38.780 And I think the worst is yet to come, personally.
00:07:43.260 But I don't know.
00:07:45.460 You know, things like this.
00:07:47.280 And some people call this a knee-jerk reaction.
00:07:49.340 It's not a knee-jerk reaction.
00:07:51.200 This has been aimed at us for a long time.
00:07:53.600 They just weren't prepared to do it.
00:07:54.980 They saw their opportunity, so they took it.
00:07:57.520 I think anything that affects business volume, anything that affects consumer spending,
00:08:03.400 is going to have a terrible effect.
00:08:05.500 Like, everything's magnified, everything's compounded because of what's gone on with the COVID-19 crisis.
00:08:11.020 So it's a lose-lose for everybody.
00:08:15.020 What do you think the biggest thing missing from the discussion is?
00:08:17.820 Because I've tried to explain over the course of different times this has come up,
00:08:22.440 the problem with terms like assault rifle, assault weapon.
00:08:25.300 I know that this last week we've heard military grade more than we've heard recently.
00:08:30.380 But what do you think is really missing from this discussion that would help a lot of people
00:08:33.880 that aren't necessarily part of your world and, to a lesser extent, my world,
00:08:38.260 would help them understand what's at stake here?
00:08:41.400 So that's an excellent question.
00:08:43.560 And it's a critically important question to answer.
00:08:46.660 So there's some, in our community, there's some very hard questions to answer.
00:08:49.980 And what I find is after the few questions are asked and satisfactory responses are given,
00:08:56.540 it always ends up right down at the big question.
00:08:59.280 Why do you need an AR-15?
00:09:01.080 It's the hardest question to answer.
00:09:03.480 I've been trying to explain to audiences, and just recently the CBC, 12 interviews in a row,
00:09:09.500 is that what non-gun owners have to understand is that people that own guns,
00:09:17.480 and specifically expensive, very specialized niche firearms like an AR-15
00:09:23.960 or some of the other guns on the banned list,
00:09:26.280 people that own those are very detail-oriented, law-abiding, careful, vetted individuals.
00:09:32.560 So the people that own those guns, their lives, these firearms are centric in their lives.
00:09:37.680 They're central in who they are.
00:09:39.700 So the people that they associate with, their social connections, are all gun people. 0.96
00:09:44.100 They volunteer, at their own expense, build 2,000 clubs across the country.
00:09:49.400 They volunteer, they hold charity events there, they hold social events, they do sports,
00:09:53.320 they create new sports.
00:09:55.080 Everything that they do in their lives have to do with their pursuit,
00:09:58.300 whether it's you're into show dogs or you're into something else or skydiving or whatever it is.
00:10:03.820 It's central to who these people are.
00:10:06.080 So when Trudeau says something like, there's no place in Canada for guns like this,
00:10:12.220 what we hear is there's no place in Canada for people.
00:10:16.300 That's what people have to understand.
00:10:20.100 Because they don't have a factual basis to attack us,
00:10:24.360 because licensed gun owners do not represent a disproportionate risk to public safety.
00:10:29.080 That's proven.
00:10:29.980 In fact, I don't know if you ever saw that conversation I had with Bill Blair.
00:10:33.040 I got him to admit that.
00:10:35.380 So anyway, that's really important.
00:10:37.660 It's not just a hobby.
00:10:38.960 Go find a new hobby.
00:10:39.860 Go find a new toy.
00:10:40.900 It's not like that.
00:10:42.060 And dismissing gun owners, millions of them, by the way, dismissing them like that,
00:10:47.060 it's just not good behavior, whether it's about guns or anything else.
00:10:51.000 Yeah.
00:10:51.260 You know, what the liberals have tried to do here is draw a line in the sand and say that,
00:10:55.180 you know, grandpa's lever action is not in the same class as your Mini-14 or your AR-15.
00:11:02.200 And sure, the guns are different, as many guns and variations are different.
00:11:06.000 But the line that I found the most egregious is that these serve one purpose alone and one
00:11:12.020 purpose alone only, and that's killing people.
00:11:15.000 And to me, as someone who owns one of those guns, I'm like, wait, like, what is being
00:11:19.200 said about gun owners here when the liberals say that the only purpose for these guns is
00:11:23.920 killing people?
00:11:24.480 No.
00:11:24.960 I mean, that's just not true.
00:11:26.260 But you're right.
00:11:26.860 There is something egregiously offensive in that.
00:11:30.000 Well, there is.
00:11:30.860 So the full line is, they're firearms designed, these are guns designed to kill the most amount
00:11:38.820 of people in the shortest amount of time.
00:11:40.320 And like 90% of what the Trudeau government says, people like Justin Trudeau and Bill Blair,
00:11:46.020 it's an out and out lie.
00:11:48.980 And that's a real problem.
00:11:50.120 That's a problem for so many other reasons that we can get into later or some other time,
00:11:54.680 right?
00:11:54.980 But it's a lie.
00:11:56.200 The AR-15, and I was actually wrong about this myself, was actually designed as a sporting
00:12:00.420 or a hunting rifle first.
00:12:02.020 And then it was adopted in the late 50s as a military rifle for the US military, because
00:12:06.300 what manufacturer doesn't want to sell their product to the military, right?
00:12:09.900 It's big dollars.
00:12:11.380 So, and, but at the same time, I want to be fair to both sides of this argument.
00:12:15.120 It doesn't matter what the origin of the firearm is.
00:12:17.500 You know, the Remington 700 is a military sniper rifle, but it's the most bolt-action
00:12:22.720 rifle and hunting in the world.
00:12:24.840 So that's beside the point.
00:12:27.640 Now, if the only use for this gun was to kill as many people as fast as possible, then
00:12:33.180 why is it being issued to the RCMP?
00:12:34.920 Is that their mandate?
00:12:35.800 If you want to look for guns that are designed for that purpose, you'll look at light machine
00:12:39.800 guns, heavy machine guns, mortars.
00:12:42.780 And what I've been telling people that I've been interviewing with time and time again,
00:12:47.540 this is not, an AR-15 is not a military-grade assault rifle.
00:12:51.800 Those have been banned since 1977.
00:12:53.680 This is a semi-automatic rifle only that was certified by the RCMP for safe use in Canada.
00:13:00.120 Yeah, I think that's a hugely important point, and I think it's really necessary to get through
00:13:05.420 the whole why-do-you-need-it problem.
00:13:08.080 And I mean, I've sometimes gone the philosophical route on that, which is that we aren't a needs-based
00:13:12.100 society, but you're right.
00:13:13.260 I mean, a lot of the lines that have been drawn here are very arbitrary, very disingenuous.
00:13:18.120 The one thing I would ask you in closing here, Rod, have you found, because I know you've
00:13:22.020 got a lobbyist who is a fantastic advocate, Tracy Wilson, have you found there is any willingness
00:13:27.720 from anyone in the Liberals to hear you out, to sit down and take your meeting in a way
00:13:32.400 that suggests they are open-minded?
00:13:34.080 So I don't include that video you did with Bill Blair here, because that was more him
00:13:37.860 selling rather than him buying.
00:13:39.940 But have you found anyone that you would say was approaching this in earnest that potentially
00:13:44.440 could be an advocate within the caucus?
00:13:47.420 So I'm going to say no.
00:13:48.740 No, the Liberals are in line, because I think the Liberals, the Liberal whip does a good job
00:13:58.340 in keeping everybody in line.
00:13:59.660 Even back in the C-71 days, T.J. 0.95
00:14:02.160 Harvey from Eastern Canada was whipped into voting for Bill C-71, and I know that he opposed
00:14:07.900 it personally.
00:14:09.200 I'm not making broad assumptions, but he did meet with us, and he knew that this was a
00:14:13.420 political solution.
00:14:14.600 Again, I'm not speaking directly for him.
00:14:16.220 I want to be careful about that.
00:14:17.680 And then he chose not to do the election, so maybe that says something.
00:14:22.920 This is entirely ideological.
00:14:25.220 And I don't want to put too fine of a point on it, but doing things the way that the Liberals
00:14:30.520 are doing is incredibly divisive.
00:14:33.920 It is incredibly corrosive to national unity.
00:14:37.380 There was around 200,000 people affected by this ban, and this is not it.
00:14:41.420 This is only the beginning.
00:14:42.820 There will be no firearms by the time that they're done.
00:14:46.360 If they've got another majority government, I assure you.
00:14:49.580 And yeah, I don't think there's...
00:14:51.880 We just have...
00:14:52.620 They have to be thrown from government and a replacement put in that's going to just
00:14:55.600 be fair to Canadians, not specifically just to gun owners.
00:14:59.060 Rod Giltaka, CEO and Executive Director of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights.
00:15:03.580 Thanks for your work, and thanks for coming on today, Rod.
00:15:06.100 Thanks, Andrew.
00:15:06.640 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:15:09.120 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.
00:15:14.260 Thank you.