Tories want ‘urgent review’ of decision to prohibit Swiss rifles
They’re supposed to be the champions of law and order who stand by their cops.
But the federal Conservatives have not hesitated to publicly rebuke their national police force, especially if they feel the rights of gun owners have been infringed upon.
We saw it in their response to the RCMP’s seizure of hundreds of guns during last year’s flooding in southern Alberta. And we’re seeing it again in their response to the RCMP’s decision to prohibit a line of Swiss rifles, with Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney on Friday calling for an “urgent review” of the “unfortunate decision” and vowing not to let it happen again.
Michael Kempa, a criminologist at the University of Ottawa, said the government’s second-guessing of the RCMP’s actions is a troubling trend and represents a “fundamental tension” in modern conservative politics today where you have, on the one hand, a classic republican belief in no government interference in policing affairs, and, on the other hand, a socially conservative-driven agenda that says it’s OK for political input in policing matters.
“We’re seeing a dual-personality politics,” Kempa said.
For a second day in a row, the RCMP was silent on its decision to reclassify as prohibited a line of Swiss Arms-brand firearms that for over a decade had been classified as either restricted or nonrestricted.
The RCMP’s firearms classification table was recently updated to state that after a “thorough inspection” of the rifles, officials deemed them to be “variants” of — or too closely resembling — a prohibited firearm commonly known as the SG-550 or SG551.
But gun owners and groups like the National Firearms Association have expressed outrage over the re-classification, saying the rifles have not been used in any violent incidents or crimes and demanding that the Conservative government “rein in” the RCMP and its “reclassification agenda.”