Groupon deal offers chance to fire an AR-15
Niagara gun club defends ‘sport of shooting’ and ad coincidentally posted after Orlando tragedy
A Niagara Region gun club offered a discount on a “tactical shooting experience” last week, inviting visitors to fire 20 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle similar to the one used in the Orlando mass shooting.
Staff at the Silverdale Gun Club in St. Anns, Ont., said they stood by the limited-time offer despite its timing, which was coincidental.
“We promote the sport of shooting,” said club coowner Joan Miller. “It is one of the safest sports in Canada.”
On Thursday, 10 per cent of Groupon’s subscribers were emailed an offer of a 50-per-cent discount on the purchase of a “tactical shooting experience” package. For $67, visitors could fire 20 rounds from a nine-millimetre handgun, another 20 from a .223 calibre tactical firearm, and “1 round using a .50 cali- bre Browning Machine Gun.”
The Browning Machine Gun, or BMG, is a fully automatic firearm and prohibited in Canada. On Friday, Miller told the Star the online ad was corrected to clarify that the purchase includes the firing of a single BMG .50 calibre bullet from a sniper rifle.
Responding to the ad, Wendy Cukier, of the Coalition for Gun Control, said “perhaps the Groupon will awaken Canadians to the extent that our gun laws have been eroded and put lives at risk.”
For the rifle portion of the “tactical shooting experience,” the ad said that purchasers could choose from three different semi-automatic rifles, including the AR-15.
The AR-15, which stands for ArmaLite Rifle, is a popular semi-automatic rifle among recreational shooters across North America. Originally designed for military forces in the 1950s, the modern civilian version is fast to reload, inexpensive to buy and relatively easy to use.
Authorities initially believed Omar Mateen, shooter behind the slaughter in Orlando, Fla., used an AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle. The weapon was later determined to be a similar firearm called a Sig Sauer MCX. The guns look the same and can shoot the same calibre ammunition — .223.
In an interview with the Star, Heidi Rathjen, a survivor of the École Polytechnique massacre in 1989 that left 14 women dead in Montreal, said military-style semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 are “weapons designed to kill people” and should be banned.
Discharging them at a gun range “is not target practice,” she argued. “It is killing practice.”
In Canada, the AR-15 is classified as a restricted, not prohibited, firearm. Its use is confined to a shooting range by a member of a gun club. Owners must complete extra licensing courses and are subject to screening by the RCMP before they are allowed to purchase and keep one.
Despite the heightened standards and precautions, Rathjen still believes “the risks are far too great and outweigh any benefits that these guns provide to a number of collectors or target shooters.”
Gun rights activists call the rifle a reliable, accurate and customizable sporting rifle for target shooting. Critics say it’s a killing machine equipped with explosive firepower.
Silverdale chief range safety officer Gary Wilson said the public “likes to hate on firearm owners but we’ve done nothing wrong.
“If you have a restricted firearm, it’s locked up in your house and when you want to use it, it has to be at an approved place,” he said. “Basically, they are toys.”
The retired Canadian Forces member wondered, “Why we are having conversations about tragic events elsewhere in the world when we have our own tragedies?” He cited as examples the plight of the country’s homeless and mistreatment of First Nations people.
Canadian gun lobby groups emphasized that the AR-15 in Canada is used at a range by civilians for sport and friendly competition.
“There is no relationship between the criminal behaviour of a murderous terrorist and the activities of lawabiding firearms owners, shooting clubs and firearm businesses,” Sheldon Clare, of the National Firearms Association, said in an emailed statement to the Star.
That sentiment was echoed by the Canadian Firearms Institute, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to protecting Canadians’ Firearms Heritage.”
“The shooting in Orlando was a tragic event and our hearts go out to the families and victims,” said Pyper Unitt. “The two issues are separate and distinct. One is an invitation to try a new sport — and the other a case of mental illness.”