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CANADA: Gun rights advocate says federal ban 'isn't going to solve a thing'

Tracey Wilson also called out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, suggesting he's using the Nova Scotia tragedy to prop up the bill
200919_ar-15-rifle
Stock photo of an AR-15 rifle. (Wiki Commons)

New legislation to ban certain styles of guns in this country will reportedly be announced later this week.

But it's legal gun owners who will pay the price, even when they didn't commit a crime, according to a gun rights advocate.

"It's not a good day," Tracey Wilson, the VP of Public Relations for the Canadian Coalition of Firearms Rights, tells The Mike Farwell Show on 570 NEWS.

She is also calling out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the timing of this announcement, two weeks after 22 people died when a gunman went on a 13-hour rampage in Nova Scotia.

"Trudeau was out, I believe, the day after the shooting, leveraging the horrific events that just happened in Nova Scotia by an unlicensed mad man with illicit firearms, and use that to prop up his proposed gun ban," she said.

Wilson says Trudeau has been sitting on this legislation the entirety of his first term, as well as these last few months, and is striking now "while the iron is hot."

She says while assault rifles capable of autofire were banned in the 1970's, this updated ban would target semi-automatic modern sporting rifles that operate the same as hunting rifles.

"They're relegated to a maximum of five rounds, they require a trigger pull for each cartridge expelled," Wilson explained.

The Globe and Mail indicates the Ruger Mini-14, used in the Ecole Polytechnique massacre, along with the AR-15 and similar types used in mass shootings across the United States will be on the Trudeau government's list.

Other guns on the list are reportedly the CZ Scorpion, the Swiss Arms Classic Green, the Beretta Cx4 Storm, the Robinson Armament XCR and the Sig Sauer SIG MCX, as well as guns that use the same platforms.

Wilson says she herself owns a Ruger Mini-14, which she says is really popular among hunters, and takes issue that it be added to the list just because it was used in a Canadian mass shooting.

"If we're going to start picking and choosing a model, a brand of firearm, based on somebody using it illicitly somewhere else," she said.

"There's obviously no science here, this is political theatre.  It's meant to pacify those loud voices that are asking for this."

She says when guns get put on the restrictive list, people can use them at a gun range, and that's it.

Wilson says if there's any action to take in the wake of the Nova Scotia shooting, the federal government should focus on doing something credible to work on crime and violence issues, along with putting programs in place and analyzing the science of mental illness.

She says taking guns will do "absolutely nothing to prevent or solve any crimes that have happened."

"(The gun owning community has) complied with every law, every regulation, regardless of how ridiculious they are," Wilson says, "We enjoy our sport safely, and without issue."

"And now, all of a sudden, the government's prepared to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money to confiscate legally acquired firearms from the very people not committing the crimes."

"It's insane."