I am torn on this one. I have a number of semi auto .223 / 5.56 rifles on the ban list and I would love to find something to break out the ammo that has just been sitting around, especially the 5.56 ammo which I can't really use elsewhere.
While I know many of us have mixed opinions of Crusader Arms as a company and their previous products, I do applaud them in having the gonads in this political climate to put out new products, regardless of their motivation in doing so. The government would love to have further development of new sporter models die off, so it is nice to see some new models introduced into the environment, whether it is locally developed/manufactured or done from abroad (ie. Turkey).
That said...and I know perhaps some may say this is just capitulating to the Liberal fear tactics, but...
I think we are long past the sense that manufacturers can do their due diligence, and be in full compliance with the parameters of, say, a C21 based characteristics of a firearm, meeting all regulations for both function and compatibility/lack of, and still get burned with the whole "variant" thing. The Crypto and R9s are only the most recent reminders of these, both of which I believe had their designs and development in light of C21 design and function characteristics. Both were then considered variants.
But you can even go further back than last year, to when they banned the GSG-16, saying it is a variant of an MP5. There is no internal parts/functioning that would justify this and as always, the overarching attribute that affects how these firearms are being treated is LOOKS. APPEARANCE. AETHSTETICS.
I also worry about the discussions about interchanging parts to make other parts work - seems to be the government can read into that kind of thing into their "variant" definition - ie. who cares if this magazine for this rifle is proprietary and cannot be altered beyond five rounds when, with a magwell change, the previously maligned stanag or pmag natively more-than-five-round magazines can be used. The government can easily redefine variant as any way to circumvent existing restrictions.
So they can make the Backland Hunter, or Turkey can come up with the other models (forget their name - Alcor, Chimera or something), but if it even closely resembles an AR or anything that looks like an AR, it is almost certain that it will hit a ban list, if past history is any indication.
I really don't get why manufacturers don't just get the FRT first to see how their designs will play out, before mass selling them to a partially unsuspecting public (I know a number of people who recently got PALs that are excited to buy their first gun - they have no idea what has / has not been banned, and aren't on CGN to follow both the legislative developments and the federal social policy climate). I suppose from a business perspective, if they were truly unscrupulous, it would make more sense to sell off as many as possible and if people are stuck with it via ban, oh well, rather than protect their potential customers in ensuring that in fact their design will be accepted by the RCMP...but even then, that is no guarantee that it won't get banned later via OIC.
Now, one can argue (and understandably so) that who cares, buy what you like. In principle I agree. But unless one has deep pockets, or has zero risk aversion (I have neither, getting married in 4 months and paying for wedding and honeymoon, not to mention putting another child through university on my own dime), it seems more of a true gamble than anything else. Perhaps if this rifle was half the price, the risk would be easier to swallow. I am in the double digits for guns that are safe queens at the moment, so the appetite for risk is not as strong as it once was. I would love to buy a new Canadian-developed product, but in seeing how the previous ones have played out, would rather see the RCMP assessment process advancing much further before taking the plunge.
My biggest fear on this gun is that it may cause the light to shine more on the Benelli M4 (and the implications would be pretty obvious by why I would be concerned as an owner of one...