Juno News - Have the Liberals abandoned their “assault-style” firearms ban？

00:00:00.000 By the way, the gun buyback, the quote-unquote gun buyback that the liberals had promised

00:00:13.820 that was supposed to cost between $400 million and $600 million, now projected to be over

00:00:18.840 $2 billion, and they have spent, I forget exactly how much, but they've spent millions

00:00:23.680 of this without even getting a single firearm yet.

00:00:27.300 So the liberal government on its gun buyback has managed to spend millions and millions

00:00:31.780 of dollars, tens of millions of dollars, and not actually got any guns.

00:00:35.160 Now, I don't mind this.

00:00:36.800 I've said this, like, I don't support government waste, but I'm happy that the gun buyback does 1.00

00:00:41.660 not exist, because the gun buyback is not a buyback, it's a confiscation scheme that the

00:00:46.300 government is trying to pretend is just this, like, administrative priority.

00:00:50.080 Now, because the government has been so bad at doing this, because they've been so incompetent,

00:00:55.000 they're now getting pressure put on them from the gun control groups and advocates that

00:00:59.800 were pushing this in the first place, who think that the liberals are basically, as the

00:01:04.580 word from Polly Susuvia, abandoning, abandoning efforts on this.

00:01:09.800 Now, I think gun owners would probably love it if that were the case.

00:01:13.000 It's not.

00:01:14.060 Tracy Wilson joins us on the line.

00:01:16.440 Tracy, it's always good to talk to you.

00:01:17.820 She is with the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights.

00:01:20.360 Thanks for coming on today.

00:01:21.940 Hey, Andrew.

00:01:22.600 Happy to be here.

00:01:23.180 Thanks for having me.

00:01:24.620 So there are a few different moving parts on this.

00:01:27.540 I mean, one is that, I mean, you, I know, are obviously tied into the firearms issue,

00:01:31.580 but you're a taxpayer as well.

00:01:33.480 And I'm sure on one hand, you don't like government wasting money, but as a gun owner,

00:01:36.260 you're probably thrilled that they haven't managed to make this gun grab happen on their

00:01:41.100 part.

00:01:41.560 But why is it that they're now getting pressure from the gun control advocates?

00:01:45.960 Why are they unhappy when, from my perspective, the liberals have basically given them everything

00:01:50.280 they want?

00:01:50.860 Well, they actually won't be happy until the, you know, doors of gun owners like me across

00:01:57.440 the country are kicked in by law enforcement and our stuff is forcibly confiscated.

00:02:02.460 I've said right from the beginning, it doesn't matter how far the liberals or any other government

00:02:09.320 goes to appease them, they'll never be satisfied.

00:02:12.180 So we saw with C-21 and the amendments G-4 and G-46 that they had to withdraw.

00:02:20.220 They went right after hunting rifles and they're going to do it again.

00:02:23.580 So, you know, the anti-gun lobby also professes that there are all kinds of assault style

00:02:30.820 firearms that have evaded this ban, you know, and escaped it.

00:02:37.080 Well, at the same time, I think most Canadians know that real assault rifles were banned back

00:02:42.600 in the seventies and this is just a further assault on legal gun owners.

00:02:47.560 You have this attitude among some gun advocates that they will not give an inch.

00:02:54.100 They will not give an inch.

00:02:55.200 And I think that there's some merit to that because people like us and certainly people

00:02:59.480 like you have seen what happens when the inch is given.

00:03:02.720 And the one trend, certainly with this liberal government that's become clear is that wherever

00:03:07.140 they say the line is drawn between an acceptable and an unacceptable gun will change the second

00:03:13.040 they ban that.

00:03:14.080 The second they implement that line, it moves.

00:03:16.800 And I think the so-called assault rifle thing conundrum is an example of that where they

00:03:22.220 say the line is here and then, okay, and then handguns now.

00:03:25.220 And then at a certain point, I think you're right that I don't believe the gun control advocates

00:03:29.100 would be happy until grandpa's musket, the last musket from, you know, 1787 is being

00:03:35.100 pried out of some old farmer's hands in Saskatchewan, will they?

00:03:40.080 Yeah, that's absolutely right.

00:03:41.600 I mean, if you look at it, it's not even just the last nine years of liberal regime, but

00:03:46.800 for over 30 years now, Pauly Susouvien has been calling the shots.

00:03:51.600 They've gotten everything they've wanted.

00:03:53.400 The increase in gun control just in the last 30 years is substantial.

00:03:58.420 We've got some of the strictest regimes in the world, and yet that's still not enough.

00:04:03.340 They won't be satisfied until our doors are kicked in and until they can basically abolish

00:04:08.560 civilian gun ownership.

00:04:10.560 And I know they profess on social media that that isn't true, but they haven't been very

00:04:15.560 definitive about where their line is.

00:04:18.100 Every time they get what they want, they move that goalpost a little bit more to include

00:04:22.320 even more firearms.

00:04:23.300 So, you know, and at the end of the day, whether I'm a gun owner or a taxpayer, I'm

00:04:28.300 also a mom and a grandma, and I see the increase in violence.

00:04:31.440 And I think what could those resources do for our communities if they were better invested

00:04:36.980 in real public safety measures?

00:04:39.100 You know, we're getting a little bit off topic here, but there was a big seizure in Peel

00:04:44.160 region, which is in the greater Toronto area last week.

00:04:46.540 And police see 71 guns and, you know, all of the liberals were jumping up and down saying,

00:04:52.440 oh, great, this is Justin Trudeau, you know, in his gun control in action.

00:04:56.060 69 of the 71 guns were smuggled in from the United States.

00:05:00.180 So zero connection whatsoever to any restrictions that any government would put in on lawful gun

00:05:06.100 ownership and licensing.

00:05:07.360 And the remaining two may have been smuggled in as well.

00:05:10.520 The origins just couldn't be traced.

00:05:11.960 So it's possible that every single one of them, but certainly the majority were, but

00:05:15.920 at the end of the day, gun owners are a minority in Canada.

00:05:19.180 There are, you know, maybe 2 million of us in a country of 36 million or so.

00:05:23.560 How do you communicate this to a lot of people who just in their quiet, peaceful, suburban

00:05:28.620 existence don't think of guns and are really susceptible to the first bit of propaganda

00:05:33.220 that comes across their news?

00:05:35.620 Well, I mean, I would like to think that we live in a country where we don't attack somebody

00:05:40.920 just because they're a minority, just because that's not how most Canadians live.

00:05:45.460 I mean, I don't know.

00:05:47.120 That's a whole different rabbit hole we could go down.

00:05:49.540 But at the same time, I think this does touch every Canadian, whether you own a firearm or

00:05:54.420 not, because number one, there's the property rights issue.

00:05:57.620 So if the government, if I followed every rule and regulation, regardless of how ridiculous

00:06:01.680 they are, complied with everything, and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter, they're

00:06:06.200 going to come and take my stuff, then that should sound big red flags for all Canadians.

00:06:11.980 And secondly, when nobody thinks about violence happening to them, and of course, we, the majority

00:06:18.100 of us will never experience it at that kind of lethal level.

00:06:23.500 But I'm sure that everybody who's been a victim of violence thought that too.

00:06:27.420 So as we see crime rates rise in communities all across the country, I think everyday Canadians

00:06:33.080 are going to start saying like, hey, what is going on here?

00:06:36.300 The focus has been on the wrong people, for at least for the last nine years, if not the

00:06:41.240 last 30.

00:06:42.400 And I think it's time to sort of recenter that balance and get back to being serious about

00:06:47.080 making safer communities.

00:06:49.080 To go back to the assault rifle ban, the so-called assault rifle ban, one of the claims that the

00:06:54.940 group has made in its criticism here is that tens of thousands of quote-unquote assault

00:07:00.500 style guns prohibited in 2020 remain in the hands of their owners.

00:07:05.280 Now, this is referring to, of course, the fact that, you know, my AR-15 has not been able

00:07:10.000 to leave my gun safe since they were banned.

00:07:12.140 I still mind, but I'm not allowed to legally do anything with it.

00:07:15.080 So it's remained there collecting dust.

00:07:17.320 But the whole point here is that if you are minded to follow the law, like I am and like

00:07:21.720 you are, that gun is providing no safety hazard to anyone, whether I'm legally allowed to

00:07:27.160 take it to the range or not.

00:07:29.160 And as we've talked about in the case of Peel Region, the police that are seizing these

00:07:33.680 guns have said time and time again, these guns are unregistered, they're unlicensed owners.

00:07:38.320 But this word assault rifle does so much heavy lifting for the Liberals here.

00:07:42.680 And I know I've talked about this, but for people listening that are not as in this,

00:07:46.000 what does that word mean or what does it not mean?

00:07:48.700 Well, it's globally understood that the term assault rifle refers to a firearm that has

00:07:57.300 a select fire capability.

00:07:58.680 In other words, it's able to go full auto.

00:08:01.200 In Canada, those have been banned since 1978.

00:08:04.380 So those are unavailable to civilians.

00:08:07.960 And nobody's asking for anything different.

00:08:10.400 What they're targeting with this May 2020 OIC and what Polly Susuvian keeps referring to

00:08:16.980 as assault-style firearms, by definition, is something is styled after something else.

00:08:22.880 It is not that thing which it is styled after.

00:08:25.300 So what they're talking about is more modern sporting arms.

00:08:29.240 So I know as a female, a young, well, not a young, an older female of small stature,

00:08:34.360 I know for me, it's really important to have a firearm that is compatible to my size and

00:08:39.800 shape.

00:08:40.460 And, you know, a lot of these modern firearms have all kinds of adjustable stocks and a

00:08:45.480 pistol grip and things like this.

00:08:47.200 So anything that looks scary is now, you know, on that ban list and, of course, in the target

00:08:53.700 of Polly Susuvian, so to speak.

00:08:56.520 But at the same time, you know, this is technology advancing.

00:09:00.020 I mean, my truck sitting in my laneway right now doesn't look anything like my grandfather's

00:09:05.440 truck that we used to drive on the farm with, right?

00:09:08.160 So it stands to reason that a lot of my guns don't look like my grandfather's either.

00:09:13.600 Yeah.

00:09:14.120 And the reality is, and again, I don't want to give them any ideas here, but if you were

00:09:17.580 to want to have an intellectually consistent and honest position, it would be that all

00:09:22.240 guns are capable of killing and all guns, therefore, should be banned.

00:09:25.380 This idea of drawing an arbitrary line that is ultimately based on appearance is just so 0.98

00:09:31.860 insanely ridiculous.

00:09:33.540 And again, I don't want to push that argument too far because I know there's going to be 0.96

00:09:36.920 some liberal member of parliament that will say, yes, you're right.

00:09:39.520 Let's ban all of them.

00:09:40.360 And I think certainly if they thought they could, they would.

00:09:42.740 But the reality is when they draw these lines, they do not make any sense.

00:09:48.140 No, they don't.

00:09:48.880 And that's how you know it's just political theater.

00:09:51.360 I mean, when you start, you know, you've got this big basket of firearms and of course,

00:09:55.180 there's all kinds.

00:09:56.380 It's a very unique item, right?

00:09:58.740 There's all kinds of them, all shapes and sizes and colors and functionalities.

00:10:03.540 The problem is, is that it'll never be enough for them.

00:10:07.100 No matter what they stick in that bandbasket, it'll never be enough for them.

00:10:11.780 And they want to keep adding more into there.

00:10:13.960 And they actually complain about new firearms on the market as well.

00:10:16.920 And this is a big problem.

00:10:17.900 Because as the rules and the laws change with this ever-changing liberal gun control, what

00:10:25.080 manufacturers do is they, you know, they get inventive and creative and they start creating

00:10:30.940 new firearms to comply with those new rules.

00:10:34.520 And Paulie Susouvier says, well, what they're doing is circumventing the law and making new

00:10:39.760 assault-style firearms.

00:10:41.540 No, they're complying with the law.

00:10:44.540 Like, it's absolutely breathtaking to see the desperation they've got.

00:10:49.880 But, I mean, here we are.

00:10:51.480 I'm not going to ramble on too long about this.

00:10:53.140 But we are four years down the road from when they first banned them.

00:10:56.400 Every single firearm is still exactly where it was before, safely locked away in the gun

00:11:02.080 rooms and safes of legal licensed gun owners.

00:11:04.320 And yet, crime is still raging out of control.

00:11:07.140 So, you know, Canadians need to ask themselves, maybe we took a wrong turn here and focused

00:11:12.860 on the wrong demographic.

00:11:14.780 Tracey Wilson, VP of Public Relations for the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights.

00:11:19.140 Always good to talk to you, Tracey.

00:11:20.280 Thanks for coming on today.

00:11:22.660 Thanks for the opportunity, Andrew.

00:11:24.120 Have a great day.

00:11:25.080 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:11:27.420 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

00:11:34.320 www.tnc.news.com

Juno News - July 28, 2024

Have the Liberals abandoned their “assault-style” firearms ban？

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