The Bancroft District Fish and Game Protective Association hosted Hastings—Lennox and Addington MP Mike Bossio to have its members's firearm concerns brought to the federal government.

Tuesday, Sept. 13 saw 30 members of the association attend a meeting with the MP at its clubhouse.

Association one-year director Paul Goggan said he thought the meeting went well.

“He's going back to find out more information for us. He was quite surprised,” said Goggan following the meeting. “We want him to understand the issues so that we have someone in Ottawa that understands our concerns.”

One of the top issues on the docket was the reclassification of Ruger 1022 magazines or 22 long rifle caliber magazines designed for the 1022 platform.

“We talked about the restriction on the magazines for the Ruger 1022. It [impacts] 100,000 people in Canada. Most of the people who own that gun would have bought the magazine that holds 25 bullets. The reason we're concerned is that [by] prohibit[ing] the magazine, they've made us all criminals. We're all in possession of this right across Canada,” explained Goggan. “It's a very popular gun. It's more of a fun-gun for shooting .22 bullets. We feel that there is no reason for the RCMP to have done this. What they're saying is the magazine will fit into a pistol so therefore you shouldn't have it for the rifle.”

New firearms marking regulations, were also discussed. According to the Canadian Firearms Blog all firearms made or imported to Canada must be stamped with the word “Canada” or “CA” as of June 1, 2017.

“They want to stamp “Canada” on every firearm that comes into Canada. We feel that it is going to cost about $200 per gun to be able to do this. We see absolutely no reason to have to do this,” said Goggan. “Last night, Mike was giving us an estimate more of $25, but each gun, because we don't have any of this equipment in Canada — it can only happen after each gun comes into Canada — every gun that comes in, each one would have to have its own press to be able to stamp each one of them separately. So we can see that it's going to be quite a difference [in prices] there.”

The association released it views the RCMP has a “sole right to decide classifications or reclassifications of firearms”, which it expressed shouldn't be the case. At the meeting it was discussed that there should be a panel of experts designated to gun law.

“The other issues that were brought up were the RCMP classifying and reclassifying the guns. We're not against the RCMP being involved, but we don't think they should be soley the only persons in Canada that can classify, or reclassify the a gun or gun magazine. We think there should be a panel of experts. What we mean by that is that there should be firearms experts, the manufacturers themselves of the firearms, the RCMP and maybe even the OPP,” said Goggan.

Bossio said it is important to hear the voices and concerns of his constituents. He thanked the club for hosting the meeting.

“The turnout was fantastic and I really appreciate all of the feedback I received on a cross section of different issues. This feedback will now be part of a broad range of feedback I receive from constituents on a daily basis to inform my views and dialogue with ministers, colleagues, and government in Ottawa. Once again I would like to thank Paul and all of those who attended,” said Bossio.

Goggan suggested the association has a membership base of over 300 community members in Bancroft and its surrounding area.