So how can the RCMP, without any justification, turn this .22 calibre rifle into a prohibited weapon?
Don't take my word for it. Walk up to any cop and ask them if they'd be more worried about facing a nutjob with a .22 calibre Blaze 47 or virtually ANY non-prohibited, commercially available 30 calibre deer rifle that can currently be bought at Canadian Tire.
This firearm has been banned, not for any legitimate reason, but because Canada's national police force thinks it looks "dangerous."
You’d be forgiven for assuming that the rifles were fundamentally different in some way; that the Blaze-47 was somehow more deadly or more easily concealed than the standard Blaze. But it isn’t. It’s the same unremarkable .22-calibre plinking gun, virtually identical in all technical aspects to the unrestricted Blaze. The Blaze-47, however, comes with hand grips and shoulder stocks that give it a superficial similarity to the AK-47 rifle made famous by the bad guys in ’80s action movies.Think about all the things you personally dislike. Should you have the power to ban them from "polite" society? Yet, you're willing to bestow that power on some faceless pencil-pushing functionary at the RCMP?
Ever been to Scarborough? Think of those ubiquitous chopped, lowered Civics & Camrys sporting unpacked mufflers and fibreglas whaletails you see at every second intersection.
Confiscating fake racing cars from all those Vin Diesel wannabes would invariably save more lives than banning firearms based solely on their grips and stocks. Best of all, with this RCMP precedent, we don't need to rely on any expensive, time consuming legislation... we'll just base it on whether some civil servant at the Ministry of Transportation doesn't like the looks (or sound) of any particular car. Hells bells, there's some ugly ass lifted monster tucks that spoil the ambiance of the picture postcard suburbs... let's put them on the list too. While we're at it, maybe we could start to dictate what colours people can paint their houses.
You think I'm being silly? Just think about the precedent here. I'm not saying the elected government doesn't have the right to legislate on firearms. Think about what is happening here. The Blaze 47 breaks no laws or even technicalities. The same gun, with a different stock and fore-end is completely legal in Canada.
If you let this happen you're ceding power to the civil service to capriciously shape your lives. That's wrong.
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UPDATE: We're not a Police State... yet...
Thank goodness for the Conservative government. They're the only party remotely concerned with personal civil rights.**********
LAST WORD: Couldn't happen here... right?
"And so in April 1933 it would be easy to say, if you were a middle-class German seeking nothing other than a quiet life, that, yes, these National Socialist chappies are a bit uncouth, but the checks and balances are still just about working. What's the worst they can do?"Don't bet on it.