'Incoherent' Liberal firearm ban excludes several semi-automatics, potentially outlaws big-game hunting rifles. . .
The ban, announced late last week, does not include the Chinese-made Norinco Type 97, for example, a semi-automatic version of the standard-issued rifles used by the People’s Liberation Army of China. Nor does it include the Russian-designed SKS rifle, the precursor to the popular AK-47; the Israeli-made Tavor .223, a semi-automatic rifle developed with the aid of the Israeli Defense Force, or the Canadian-made WK180-C, which gun publication CalibreMag said “functions much like an AR-15”, a firearm Justin Trudeau was at pains to highlight.
Meanwhile, the list bans a number of bolt-action hunting rifles used for large game. Some retailers worry the restrictions could also extend to accessorized shotguns used in bird hunts, due to broad language used in the regulations. A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair on Tuesday said the ban would not include shotguns, and was preparing an official statement on the matter as the National Post went to press.
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Blair last week banned eleven broadly-defined firearm models, encompassing roughly 1,500 individual firearm variations. The prime minister justified the decision by saying that all firearms included under the ban were designed with an explicit purpose to “kill the largest amount of people in the shortest amount of time.”
“You don’t need an AR-15 to bring down a deer,” Trudeau said.
But retailers and distributors say the prohibition list appears to have been hastily assembled, arbitrarily excluding or including firearms while leaving Canadian companies stuck with millions in unusable inventory. An industry association is now calling on Ottawa to reimburse those firms by as much as $1.1 billion and clarify the apparent discrepancies.
“Minister Blair is either too inept to comprehend the scope of his regulations… or he lied to the government and Canadians,” the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association (CSAAA) said in a statement on Tuesday.
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A collector holds an SKS rifle at a Calgary gun show on Sept. 21, 2019. The SKS, a precursor to the AK-47, is one of the rifles not covered by the Liberals’ recent ban on “military-style” firearms. Jim Wells/Postmedia/File
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Many retailers pointed to inconsistencies in the prohibition list. The Liberal ban outlawed the Accuracy International AX, a large-game hunting rifle whose highest calibre comes in .338, which falls below the regulatory threshold prescribed in the Order in Council, according to several people. The new regulations outlaw any firearm with a muzzle energy greater than 10,000 joules.
Meanwhile, some hunting rifles below the .50 calibre, like the Weatherby Mark V .460, have a muzzle energy higher than 10,000 joules, but are not included on the list of banned firearms.
Indigenous people who use .50 calibre rifles to hunt big game will be allowed to continue using the firearms for a two-year period, after which they will have to surrender them, according to a spokesperson for Justice Minister David Lametti. Exemptions from the ban could also be extended to people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who depend on the firearms to sustain their families.
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