FILE -- In this Aug. 15, 2012 file photo, three variations of the AR-15 assault rifle are displayed at the California Department of Justice in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli,file)

A Liberal MP pulled out a photo blow-up of the infamous AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used in a string of mass shootings in the U.S. as he questioned the head of a national firearm coalition Thursday over its opposition to the government’s new gun-control bill.

London, Ont., Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos was pressing Rod Giltaca, president of the newly established Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, over its radical policy positions, including opposition to any form of gun registry and support for licences allowing the concealed carry of handguns in public.

After Giltaca opened his committee witness testimony on the Liberal firearm bill with a denunciation of several main elements in the legislation (Bill C-71), Fragiskatos held up a large photo of the AR-15 and questioned Giltaca about the rifle’s origin as a U.S. military rifle in the Vietnam War.

“Does someone need this to go hunting deer?” Fragistakos asked Giltaca, holding up a photo of the AR-15 in its current sport shooting form, a stubby deadly looking weapon with a black clip and short barrel that has resulted in its classification as a restricted firearm in Canada.

The Liberal government in 2016 rejected a Commons e-petition demand for reclassification of the rifle to non-restricted status for hunting use.

“I’m curious whether it’s the look of the firearm that offends you,” replied Giltaca.

“I’m not offended,” the first-term Liberal MP countered. “This is very, very critical, I mentioned shootings at the outset, Canadians are very concerned.”

Fragiskatos had arrived prepared to question Giltaca during his appearance at the Commons standing committee for Public Safety and National Security.

A controversy recently broke out for a brief time after a Liberal party fundraising letter claimed Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer was taking guidance on gun-control positions from “Canada’s NRA.”

A Liberal staffer in a party unit tasked with responding to public inquiries later unknowingly informed a member of Giltaca’s coalition that the Canadian NRA the fundraiser referred to was Giltaca’s group. The party itself later said the NRA tag was not aimed at a single or specific firearm association in Canada.

Fragiskatos listed five mass shootings in the U.S. since 2012 where lone gunmen used the AR-15 to kill a total of 164 people, including 24 children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut.

After Conservative MPs on the committee noted the events Fragiskatos cited had all taken place in the U.S., the Liberal MP, apparently prepared for the reaction, pulled out a large photo of another controversial military-style rifle: the Czech-made CZ-858.

The rifle, a model of which is restricted in Canada, was carried by gunman Alexandre Bissonnette when he killed six Muslim worshippers in an attack against a Quebec City mosque on Jan. 29, 2017. The rifle jammed after its first shot, but Bissonnette used a semi-automatic handgun to complete his rampage.

“At any point, have you considered what this means for public safety, these positions that you are taking on this bill, because what C-71 for me is a clear example of how we can strengthen safety in Canadian society,” Fragiskatos said to Giltaca.

“What you’re telling me here, and what you’re telling the committee, in effect, is all these positions that you have, on carry and conceal, understanding gun ownership not as a privilege but as an absolute right, the AR-15, your positions on that, I wanted to ask you about bump stocks but I’m not going to get an opportunity.”

“Did we say that carrying a firearm was a right?” responded Giltaca.

“It’s on your web site,” said Fragiskatos.

Giltaca opened his testimony on the offensive, describing Bill C-71 as the latest attack on the rights of firearm owners and an array of regulations and law that control their use of guns.

“We represent thousands of highly compliant, continuously vetted individual Canadians who are frustrated with being punished for no valid reason,” said Giltaca.

“We are being punished by pointless and ineffective regulations, nonsensical and arbitrary requirements and vilified by the government and media without end,” he said.

“The bill itself we consider to be a disaster.”

The president of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association and its executive director, Tony Bernardo, also appeared to denounce the legislation. Among other aspects, the association argued requirements for retail record-keeping for non-restricted firearms will, in effect, recreate a gun registry the Liberals had promised not to revive.

Wendy Cukier, who was a co-founder of the Canadian Coalition for Gun Control after the shooting of 14 women at Montreal’s Polytechnique engineering school in 1989, appeared to laud measures in the bill that supporters say will increase firearm safety and reinstate measures that could help to mitigate firearm suicides.