There is, as other witnesses have mentioned, less clarity around semi-automatic military-style weapons than there is, for example, around fully automatic weapons, although there have been court cases indicating that even this term is subject to interpretation, and the courts have interpreted the ban on fully automatic weapons as including firearms capable of fully automatic fire.
These definitional issues are not new, and my caution is to ensure precision. That's why we like the language about “not reasonably used for hunting”. We know there are semi-automatic firearms that are widely used for hunting, that were designed as hunting rifles and that don't have large-capacity magazines associated with them and so on. Our concern is to not spread too wide a net but at the same time fulfill the obligation to the Canadian people to protect them from firearms that serve no legitimate purpose in the hands of civilians.