Zimmer Questions Gun Classification Policy

Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies Conservative MP Bob Zimmer says he’s concerned with Canada’s Public Safety Minister’s decision to give Mounties the authority to classify weapons.

Zimmer was responding after Minister Ralph Goodale said the government had no plans to change the classification of the Armalite AR-15 rifle.

“Before, when we were in government we had a group of … firearms experts, Canadian sport shooters, RCMP, different groups that were represented, advising us about firearms issues,” Zimmer said.

“When only one of those user groups is giving advice and making decisions on firearms, you’re going to get only one perspective, and that’s concerning.”

In May, Zimmer sponsored and presented an e-petition in the House of Commons to reclassify the rifle, popular with sports shooters, from its restricted status. The petition garnered 25,000 signatures nationwide.

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Although the AR-15 is legal to own, owners are limited to target and range practice, and can only shoot on an approved gun range. Owners need a permit to transport the gun from their home, whether it’s to the range or a gun show.

Zimmer and gun advocates say the rifle is popular for sports and hunting, and is only classified as restricted due to its design. But in his response, Goodale said “the AR-15 is restricted because of its lineage to the military-issued M-16 assault rifle.”

“The Government is committed to putting decision-making authority about weapons classification back into the hands of police, not politicians,” Goodale wrote in his decision earlier this month.

“The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is responsible for the technical determination of the classification of firearms in accordance with the criteria stipulated by Parliament in the Criminal Code.”

In an interview with CBC, the Coalition for Gun Control called Goodale’s move the “appropriate decision.”

But Zimmer continued to question the RCMP’s authority to classify weapons, criticizing an RCMP decision to restrict magazine limits for the Ruger 10/22 rifle, which has been a recent hot button issue in firearms circles.

“It’s decisions like that that are concerning to the firearms community and people like myself. When the law clearly says that it’s legal and permitted, and because an individual in the firearms division in the RCMP says that it’s not, we have to live by that one person’s decision,” Zimmer said, calling it “even more evidence of why we need those kind of decisions made by a board of experts and not again just one particular individual.”

SOURCE:  Prince George Citizen

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