Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for joining us today, Robert. We spent a few months together on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. We shared some fishing tales. It's very nice to have you with us today.
I am also part of Canada's hunting and fishing community. I don't like to be depicted as part of any given community. I sometimes find that the Conservatives put all the hunters and fishers in a specific category.
I agree with some of the points. However, I think that practically all the committee members have a least one air gun, as every time someone asks questions about that, they mention that they have one. So I will jump on the bandwagon. I also have air guns at home. It's always very nice to relax at the cottage and fire at targets.
That is why I have been looking at the current practices on air guns. I know that practically anyone can buy air guns with a velocity of less than 500 feet per second. They are currently not considered firearms under the Firearms Act. They are also not subject to the Criminal Code penalties for the possession of firearms. Air guns are considered firearms under the Criminal Code only if they are used to commit a crime.
This brings a lot of questions to my mind. Are the current laws not logical? Why would we want to change things? I feel that the logic is very simple. An air gun is considered to be a firearm under the Criminal Code only if a crime is committed. Why would we want to change the rules in that regard?