Over the last few years, the terms “misinformation” and “disinformation” have entered people’s everyday lexicons. It’s found that these concepts are handy scapegoats for all manner of things, especially when your terrible idea doesn’t gain any traction.

That’s ultimately what happened up in Canada, with a proposed ban on so-called assault weapons. It seems one of the big anti-gun groups of the Great White North is, predictably, blaming disinformation.

A prominent voice for stricter gun control is poised to tell MPs the federal government’s efforts to outlaw assault-style firearms have become mired in disinformation.

The group PolySeSouvient plans to appear at a House of Commons committee today to support the federal government’s plan to legislatively enshrine a definition of guns considered unsafe for civilian use.

PolySeSouvient includes students and graduates of Montreal’s École Polytechnique, where a gunman killed 14 women with a Ruger Mini-14 in 1989.

The federal Liberals banned the gun, along with some 1,500 other firearm models and variants, through an order-in-council in May 2020, saying they have no place in sport shooting or hunting.

PolySeSouvient maintains that the initial approach was fundamentally sound, but ended up being clouded by confusing language and erroneous or misleading claims.

“While we agree with critics that say the process surrounding their introduction was problematic, we believe that in substance, they were generally solid and would not have prohibited most if not all the hunting models showcased by opponents of stronger gun control,” the group said in a Feb. 9 letter to Liberal MP Ron McKinnon, who chairs the committee.

PolySeSouvient, which made its letter public this week, says the echoing of gun lobby claims has contributed to unfounded fear among hunters, even though their firearms would very likely not have been prohibited by the proposed measures.

The problem here isn’t disinformation, but the fact that PolySeSouvient really doesn’t understand guns, gun owners, or hunting.

See, the idea here was to create a definition that prohibited certain firearms going forward, but the truth is that hunting guns would have been included. Sure, maybe not your daddy’s Enfield, but there are hunting guns contained within that definition.

Besides, PolySeSouvient has press contacts. The Canadian media is more than eager to support anyone pushing gun control. I mean, look at how fast Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brownface controversy vanished when he dedicated himself to gun control.

So why didn’t they clarify at the time? Why is it just now that they’re claiming that the ban only affected anti-tank guns?

Moreover, why would there be a problem with anti-tank rifles in the first place? It’s not like people are being shot in the streets with those. That’s not even happening in places like Chicago, New York, or Detroit, so why is there such a panic in Canada over these guns?

The truth of the matter is that this is a gun control group that was so convinced they’d win that they didn’t even bother to play defense.

Now they’re crying because they got curb-stomped and want to claim disinformation was to blame. After all, it couldn’t be that they were pushing a terrible agenda that people saw through.

Well, Sparky, that’s just tough for you.