Juno News - June 01, 2019


In Defence of the AR-15


Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

180.46753

Word count

1,158

Sentence count

90

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

The AR-15 is one of the most maligned and misunderstood guns in Canada. For Canadian gun owners, the fear is that if a gun ban comes down the pipeline from the federal government, the AR- 15 will be the first one to go.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 The AR-15 is one of the most maligned and misunderstood guns in Canada.
00:00:06.000 For Canadian gun owners, the fear is that if a gun ban comes down the pipeline from the federal government,
00:00:12.000 the AR-15 will be the first one to go.
00:00:15.000 There are a few indications that this is a possibility.
00:00:18.000 For one, Bill Blair has refused to rule out that he will, through a cabinet directive, not through parliament,
00:00:24.000 issue some restriction on firearms.
00:00:26.000 Secondly, Bill Blair has been parroting this absolutely phony logic about guns,
00:00:32.000 that he wants to take aim at guns that are used to hunt people.
00:00:36.000 And more importantly, we have Canadian gun owners responding by buying more of these guns than the market has available.
00:00:44.000 These things are flying off the shelves, gun stores can't keep AR-15s in stock,
00:00:49.000 and the firearms offices across the country responsible for registering these guns are dealing with major backlogs
00:00:55.000 because of the volume.
00:00:57.000 As a press release from a gun activist group in Canada said,
00:01:00.000 Bill Blair may well be the greatest salesman for the AR-15 in Canada.
00:01:04.000 But I want to deal with the facts of this gun,
00:01:07.000 because this is often heralded as being the paragon of American gun violence by the media and by the left.
00:01:13.000 And for people that have never held one or shot one,
00:01:16.000 they may not have any idea why the so-called facts circulating about the AR-15 are in fact myths.
00:01:22.000 So let's start with the basics.
00:01:24.000 When most people talk about the AR-15, they're not referring to one single gun.
00:01:28.000 There is an AR-15, it's made by Colt, it's a patented name,
00:01:32.000 but for the most part, the AR-15 refers to a style of firearm.
00:01:37.000 And they all, of course, have similarities.
00:01:39.000 You look at variations of it, like the one made by Smith & Wesson,
00:01:43.000 the one made by Colt, the famous Bushmaster.
00:01:45.000 You have Naranko versions that are on the lower end.
00:01:48.000 You have this gun that exists in popularity because it's customizable.
00:01:52.000 People can swap out different parts, you can add on features to it.
00:01:56.000 And this is one of the reasons people love it.
00:01:59.000 It's a very popular firearm because it's fun, it looks cool,
00:02:02.000 and it's enjoyable to shoot, it's lightweight,
00:02:05.000 and it gives you a lot of opportunities as a shooter,
00:02:08.000 whether you're a novice shooter or an advanced sports shooter,
00:02:11.000 to learn and grow and get better at aiming.
00:02:14.000 But one of the things that is most interesting about this discussion is that
00:02:18.000 the AR-15 does not do more than a lot of other guns that are not classed as restricted.
00:02:25.000 Now, a restricted firearm means you need a special license to have it.
00:02:28.000 The government needs to give you authorization to even take it from home to the gun range and back.
00:02:33.000 You can't use it for hunting.
00:02:35.000 But take a look at this gun.
00:02:36.000 Now, this is a Mini-14.
00:02:38.000 It is a non-restricted gun.
00:02:40.000 It shoots a .223 round of ammunition.
00:02:44.000 The same round of ammunition used in many AR-15 models.
00:02:48.000 It shoots it at the same rate of fire.
00:02:50.000 They're both semi-automatic.
00:02:52.000 One's non-restricted and one's restricted.
00:02:55.000 The reason?
00:02:56.000 Well, the AR-15 looks scarier and has thus been classed as restricted.
00:03:01.000 This is the logic of Canadian gun laws.
00:03:04.000 A lot of arbitrary determinations have been made.
00:03:06.000 Take a look at this firearm, for example.
00:03:08.000 This one fires a .50 caliber round.
00:03:11.000 Now, a .50 caliber round is quite giant.
00:03:13.000 You can look at an example of it there.
00:03:15.000 In fact, this is the type of round that's used in many military sniper operations.
00:03:20.000 You could kill someone from 2.5 kilometers away with this gun.
00:03:24.000 It's non-restricted.
00:03:26.000 The AR-15, which is used more for 100 yards, is restricted.
00:03:33.000 Again, arbitrary determinations have been made.
00:03:36.000 So, we've talked a little bit about what the AR-15 is in relation to other firearms.
00:03:41.000 But there is an undeniable reality that it's been used in many mass shootings.
00:03:46.000 And this is one of the reasons that if there is a gun ban, this is going to be the first to go.
00:03:51.000 American mass shooters have used the AR-15.
00:03:53.000 What is it about the gun?
00:03:55.000 Nothing other than its popularity.
00:03:57.000 This is no different than saying something like,
00:03:59.000 you're more likely to find a Honda Civic or a Toyota Corolla involved in a car accident.
00:04:04.000 Not because there's anything more dangerous about those cars,
00:04:07.000 but because they are more popular.
00:04:09.000 Things that exist in the world in higher numbers are more likely to be used in higher numbers
00:04:14.000 in both good and bad applications.
00:04:17.000 So, the AR-15 is targeted with misinformation.
00:04:20.000 It's smeared as an assault rifle.
00:04:22.000 And people will even say, that's what the AR stands for.
00:04:24.000 It doesn't actually.
00:04:25.000 The AR stands for Armolite Rifle.
00:04:27.000 After the original model on which the civilian AR-15 was based.
00:04:32.000 The AR-15 models that we see in Canada have never been used in war.
00:04:36.000 They were not designed, as Bill Blair might say, to hunt people.
00:04:39.000 They are there for civilians.
00:04:41.000 They're not assault rifles.
00:04:43.000 For one, they don't fire in fully automatic fashion.
00:04:46.000 They fire in semi-autic fashion.
00:04:48.000 And all that means is that when you shoot it,
00:04:50.000 you're able to shoot it again without manually reloading
00:04:53.000 like you would in a bolt-action or a lever-action style firearm.
00:04:58.000 So, whether Canada will see an AR-15 ban under the guise of an assault weapons ban
00:05:04.000 still stands to be seen.
00:05:06.000 But I want Canadians to have the facts about this.
00:05:08.000 Canadian gun owners, as I mentioned earlier,
00:05:10.000 are very leery of what the government will do.
00:05:13.000 I'm one of the Canadians that's purchased one in the last few weeks
00:05:16.000 just because of this concern that Bill Blair could, based on misinformation and mythology,
00:05:21.000 purge these guns from the Canadian Gun Owners Collectors Cabinet.
00:05:26.000 Why own one?
00:05:27.000 People will say.
00:05:28.000 You can't use it for hunting.
00:05:29.000 The reason you can't is because of government,
00:05:31.000 not because it couldn't be used for hunting.
00:05:33.000 And the question of need.
00:05:36.000 For starters, we aren't a society of needs.
00:05:38.000 It's not about needs.
00:05:39.000 Sport shooting is a popular pastime.
00:05:41.000 Millions of firearms exist in Canada legally.
00:05:44.000 There are over a million gun owners in Canada
00:05:47.000 that own guns for any number of reasons,
00:05:49.000 from hunting to sport shooting.
00:05:51.000 It's a sport.
00:05:52.000 It's a game.
00:05:53.000 It's fun to do.
00:05:55.000 And the gun owners who partake in this hobby in this pastime 0.94
00:05:58.000 are statistically less likely to be involved in any sort of gun crime
00:06:03.000 or any violent incident with firearms than the general population.
00:06:07.000 The government is so much more invested in the mythology of guns
00:06:11.000 than the actual truth of them.
00:06:13.000 The AR-15 is not the enemy of Canada or Canadians.
00:06:17.000 It's a gun like any other,
00:06:19.000 and Canadians should learn a bit about them,
00:06:21.000 especially if they support a ban.
00:06:23.000 For True North, I'm Andrew Lawton.