Brandon police’s use of the term ‘assault rifle’ irks gun enthusiasts

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This article was published 17/07/2018 (2796 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Gun enthusiasts were enraged after the Brandon Police Service called a Norinco Type 97 semi-automatic rifle an “assault rifle.”

Those opposed to the label voiced their displeasure on social media, arguing that the firearm seized from a Ninth Street North residence following a Friday standoff was not an “assault rifle,” as the BPS had described it in a release.

Meanwhile, the BPS is sticking to its guns.

“An assault rifle is what you had in the picture in the paper there, so that’s basically what an assault rifle is,” Sgt. Jeff Hoad said.

That terminology is simply incorrect, said Tyson Lobreau, an employee with Virden-based hunting supply shop Wolverine Supplies.

“The term assault rifle is a huge misconception, and it does get thrown around a lot,” Lobreau said.

Although Lobreau said the firearm looks similar to the assault rifles used by the Chinese military — the “Type 95” — there are important differences.

“It’s not an assault rifle,” he said of the gun seized on Friday. “This is a commercial version. It is completely legal to own in Canada and there’s nothing wrong with it at all. Basically, it’s a sporting rifle.”

Lobreau defined an assault rifle as a gun that enables the shooter to fire a predetermined number of rounds, or has selective fire and can shoot from different modes, including semi-automatic, burst mode or fully automatic firing mode.

Still, it wasn’t clear to others what, exactly, should be classified as an assault rifle.

Firearms safety educator and Brandon Wildlife Association president Don Teale said that assault rifles are difficult to define.

“I don’t call them an assault rifle because there is no exact terminology. If you look it up in the dictionary, it doesn’t say ‘OK, the firearm has to be like this here to be called an assault rifle.’ there’s actually no such thing,” he said.

When reached for comment as to how they define an assault rifle, the Brandon Police Service didn’t have a clear answer.

“I’m pretty sure it (the weapon found) would be classified as a semi-automatic assault rifle,” Hoad said.

The RCMP didn’t know, either.

“Hard to say what the definition is, but it [an assault rifle] kind of looks more like an arm-type rifle,” said Cpl. Mike Boychuk of Blue Hills RCMP.

“I’m looking on Wikipedia, an assault rifle is a selective fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine,” Boychuk said. “I would say if it fits that, well, then that’s what it is.”

Loosely throwing around the term “assault rifle” can cause problems, Lobreau said.

“It’s a very derogative term, and it basically sets the bias,” he said.

The semi-automatic rifle that was found on Ninth Street North is a gun people can hunt with, and is a non-restricted firearm, Lobreau said.

“It’s your everyday guy that can own these firearms. The term assault rifle is incorrectly used because that’s a firearm that would only be used by military forces or law enforcement,” he said.

Still, BPS said in an initial release and in subsequent conversation that the weapon discovered after the standoff in Brandon on Friday was an assault rifle, despite not giving a clear definition of what exactly they classify as an assault rifle.

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, an assault rifle is “any of various intermediate-range, magazine-fed military rifles (such as the AK-47) that can be set for automatic or semiautomatic fire; also: a rifle that resembles a military assault rifle but is designed to allow only semiautomatic fire.”

» mverge@brandonsun.com

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