Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the committee for inviting us to contribute to the discussion around Bill C-71. As the committee is aware, we represent the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights. What is significant about that is that the CCFR is primarily a public relations

Public Safety committee  If we could find something that enhanced public safety and wasn't just purely punitive or purely political, then we'd be glad to talk about it. Your assumption is that a great number of Canadians want more restrictive control, and I'm just not sure. Right now there is a petition

Public Safety committee  They certainly are asking for diametrically opposed measures. I would invite the Minister of Public Safety to come before the committee at some point and talk about all of the messages that he's received from gun owners and even people who aren't gun owners who just don't think t

Public Safety committee  Are we controlling the people involved in these transactions purely by the fact that they have a PAL, they have a licence. These are transactions among licensed individuals and these individuals are the most highly scrutinized people in our country. The police and the commissione

Public Safety committee  There's nothing in the bill that will affect the behaviour of criminals. The only measures we see in the bill are measures to affect the behaviour of licence-holders. That's a concern because we all want a safer Canada and if there was something in the bill that would help that,

Public Safety committee  And the law itself has to be far more clear around how firearms are classified. Right now, the laws are an absolute mess, especially with the use of undefined terms like “variant”—we know that that's an issue—“easily converted”, or “converted full autos”. These are excuses to pro

Public Safety committee  I'm not sure what part of your question has to do with Bill C-71.

Public Safety committee  Well, I'm happy to talk about your philosophical question. In Canada, apparently, it's been determined that no one has a right to own a firearm and we understand that.

Public Safety committee  Yes, it's more of a privilege and we understand that there's—

Public Safety committee  There seems to be a lot of confusion around this, but we acknowledge that there's a system in Canada for regulation and, if you look at us, as a group, we don't object to the licensing system. We take a lot of heat from gun owners for that, but we're saying, as responsible gun ow

Public Safety committee  Yes.

Public Safety committee  [Inaudible—Editor] semi-automatic rifle and that's why.

Public Safety committee  Okay.

Public Safety committee  Yes, absolutely.

Public Safety committee  I'm curious as to whether it's the look of the firearm that offends you or the lethality. Which is it that bothers you the most?