"This is the largest assault on hunters in Canadian history."

That's Dr. Robert Kitchen, Member of Parliament for Souris-Moose Mountain, who spoke recently on the proposed changes to Bill C-21, the federal gun control legislation.

Kitchen stated that the federal government recently snuck in a last-minute amendment to the legislation, which would ban a large number of hunting rifles.

The amendment would ban any rifle or shotgun that can potentially accept a magazine with more than five rounds, criminalizing a large number of hunters, farmers and target shooters, who legally own these firearms. 

He said that Bill C-21 was legislation that was originally brought in to deal with handguns. 

"I guess it's been almost three weeks now, they tried to sneak in at the very end of committee hearings this amendment to the legislation, that actually listed a significant number, in fact a huge number, of hunting rifles that are used by hunters throughout Canada."

He said initially, the federal government had said that they're not going after hunters.

"And now, you have the Prime Minister, who is getting caught on this, is basically turning around and saying, 'Oh, well now we're consulting with Canadians and hearing about what they have to say,' but in reality, they're not consulting even at all."

Kitchen said that normally, when a bill goes to committee, you hear from advocates as well as people in opposition to it. 

"All these individuals presented on handgun issues and then when they put this in [the amendment] at the very last minute, once they had not heard from these individuals, they never had an opportunity to even speak about long guns; because it was never an issue. Again, it's an underhanded way for this government to target law-abiding hunters and farmers.

"The bill is sitting right now at committee," Kitchen said. "It hasn't come back to be debated. Right now it should be being debated at committee, and this government is basically blocking that."

He said that himself and the members of the opposition will continue to do what they can to try and make certain that all Canadians understand what is going on and understand the true facts of the matter.

"There are petitions out there, and so I encourage people to take a look at those petitions and see whether they are comfortable on signing those petitions, so we can truly let this Prime Minister know."

"If he says he's listening to Canadians, and he wants to hear what they're talking about, then petitions and other aspects should be put forward to him."