As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes the case that police want carbine rifles like the AR-15 banned because it is a “military-style assault rifle”, he is being contradicted by a recently surfaced article by an RCMP officer..Writing in Blue Line – which describes itself as “Canada’s national law enforcement magazine”- RCMP officer Dave Brown writes that that carbine rifles “are not ‘assault rifles’ or military weapons. They have no full-auto capability.”.“They [carbine rifles] may look like military issue and are made to the same standard, for the simple reason that when public and officer safety is on the line, they MUST work. They are made to military quality standards because they need to instantly perform with 100 per cent reliability in any condition.”.Anti-gun politicians and activists in Canada have regularly labeled firearms like the AR-15 a “military-style assault rifle”, despite the fact that no military in the world uses the AR-15 as a standard issue rifle, and that there are vast differences in the performance capabilities between fully-automatic and semi-automatic firearms..Brown’s 2016 article argues that RCMP and other Canadian police forces should be equipped with carbine rifles like the AR-15, but that they need to help the public understand that they need not fear the police carrying something that aesthetically resembles a military weapon..“They are not an assault rifle, military rifle or machine gun,” Brown continued. “Patrol carbines are designed exclusively to save lives. Do not use the term assault rifle. They are not used for assault – they are used to save lives. The faster you stop an active shooter, the more lives you will save.”.“Ballistics tests, including numerous studies by the FBI and our own comparisons, have shown that a carbine bullet is less likely to over-penetrate a target, thus reducing the hazard to other officers or citizens in an area..The article has resurfaced recently as firearms and sport shooting groups have shared it on social media networks to highlight that expert opinion understands that carbine rifles like the AR-15 are not “military-style assault rifles”, as anti-gun politicians and activists claim..The full article by Dave Brown can be read at blueline.ca.
