If the Liberals are re-elected to a second term in government, their plan to tackle gun violence includes a ban on high-velocity, semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15, and gun marketing bans evoking America’s favourite action figure, as imagined by our Public Safety Minister.
“There are sometimes advertisements and videos that appear (on social media)… to imply that we can be GI Joe on our main street,” minister Ralph Goodale said of the Liberal platform’s vague reference to “limit the glorification of violence by changing the way firearms are advertised, marketed and sold in Canada.”
During a Q&A with reporters in Ottawa on Sunday, Goodale fielded questions about their incumbent government’s election promises, and was describing the sort of promotional material that could be targeted.
“(It) depicts a kind of behaviour that is simply inappropriate and some people would find it quite threatening … and it leads to the impression of military assault weapons is something you just do, every day,” explained Goodale.
“It’s really quite a distorted kind of advertising and it does glorify violence with a certain kind of weapon, that has only one purpose and that is to kill people, the largest number of people, as fast as you possibly can.”
Given the presence of such nefarious assault rifle adverts lurking in cyberspace, The Post Millennial searched YouTube and came up with real-life GI Joe; veteran U.S. Navy Seal Don Raso who extolls the self-defence virtues of the AR-15.
Rather than encouraging viewers to behave like GI Joe in their hometown’s public square, Ramos gives an all-American pitch for one of the most popular guns ever created.
“If the Founding Fathers had known this gun would’ve been invented. They wouldn’t have re-written the Second Amendment. They would’ve fortified it in stone,” says the former special forces soldier in the five-minute NRA News spot.
On Tuesday in Toronto, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a second day of talks to push his nationwide “assault-style” firearm embargo and municipal handgun ban with the justification it will reduce gun crime.
Trudeau has also promised an additional $150 million to combat gang violence.
While Toronto has seen increased gun crime – 342 incidents, 505 shootings causing 29 deaths in GTA thus far in 2019 – Ontario Premier Doug Ford has rejected a citywide gun ban in favour of putting more resources into targeting gangs.
Ford has a long record supporting the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police who say firearm bans won’t stem the tide of illegal guns entering the country from the United States.
Police association president Adam Palmer, Vancouver’s police chief, told CBC back in August that Canada’s gun laws are already “very good…very strict”.
“People can’t be naive to the realities of how it works with organized crime and smuggling,” Palmer noted.
Canada’s Criminal Code currently contains no legal definition for what constitutes an “assault rifle” and the AR-15 is already a restricted weapon that must be registered and used only at an approved range.
Other weapons of the hunting variety that employ the same ammunition as an AR-15 have no registry requirement but owners must have a firearms licence and follow guidelines on transportation and storage.
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