Liberal policy targets semi automatics

As if they didn't already learn lessons from the long gun registry fiasco, some political figures have law abiding gun owners in their sights again -- this time with plans to eliminate the personal use of automatic and semi automatic guns.

That plan is spelled out in black and white in the Liberal Party of Canada's Resolution #42.

"What is more disturbing than the Liberals' ongoing failure to understand that law-abiding gun owners are not a threat to public safety, is the glaringly incorrect information on which this party apparently makes its firearms resolution," said O.F.A.H. President, John Ford.

As the O.F.A.H. promptly pointed out to Liberal Party of Canada President, Marie Poulin, as misguided as the Resolution may be, it is blatantly wrong. Semi automatics are legal for hunting and semi automatics do, in fact, support the hunting culture found in all parts of Canada. They have been used in hunting for years.

"If the authors of the resolution had taken the time to consult their Party's own badly flawed Bill C-68, they would have found that these firearms are recognized in that legislation as being used for hunting. Whoever crafted this resolution obviously knows little about firearms and hunting," said O.F.A.H. Government Relations Manager Greg Farrant.

Greg added, "it is particularly galling that Resolution #42 should come out of the National Women's Liberal Commission, under the leadership of Belinda Stronach, Chair of the National Liberal Women's Caucus, who, when sitting as a member of the Conservative Party of Canada on January 21, 2004, spoke in opposition to the long gun registry."

At press time, the Liberal Party of Canada has not responded to our urgent calls to scrap the resolution in its entirety (given the absence of any evidence to support it) or, at the very least, amend it to reflect the truth.

This article appeared in the February 2007 issue of The Angler & Hunter Hotline