Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Ralph Goodale, has announced the government will not consider altering the classification of the AR-15 rifle in response to a petition filed by Conservative MP Bob Zimmer last month. The AR-15 petition, E-111, which garnered much attention as far and away the most popular of the Liberal government’s new e-petitions, had 25,249 signatories, hailing from across Canada.

“The position of the government of Canada is that this judgment needs to be left in the hands of the professionals in the police authorities, who are by far in the best position to make these judgment calls based upon their expertise,” Goodale commented today. “The request has been made to change the classification, but our position is ‘no’, that the existing classification will remain.”

Goodale continued, claiming the AR-15’s restricted classification was awarded by the RCMP’s firearm experts, and that the decision of said experts would not be second-guessed by politicians; a statement that unfortunately ignores the AR-15’s classification as first a prohibited, then restricted firearm by a politically-appointed committee decades ago.

A formal written reply to the petition will be provided at a later date.

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