LGR dead as of midnight Apr 5th 2012

Changes to business requirements: elimination of the requirement to register non-restricted firearms Special Bulletin for Businesses No. 79
April 5, 2012

Snapshot
Implementation of Bill C-19, the Ending the Long-Gun Registry Act.

Implications
The Government of Canada has changed the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act to eliminate the requirement to register non-restricted firearms effective April 5, 2012. Until further notice, due to a Court Order issued by the Quebec Superior Court, residents of Quebec are still required to register non-restricted firearms with the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program.

Beginning on April 5, 2012, firearms businesses are no longer required to obtain a Registration Certificate for non-restricted firearms from the Canadian Firearms Program (CFP). This does not impact registration requirements for restricted or prohibited firearms.

Businesses that use Business Web Services, available from the CFP website, are advised that the registration and transfer of non-restricted firearms is no longer required or supported.

Individuals and businesses buying or otherwise acquiring firearms must still have a firearms licence, and businesses are still responsible for checking the buyer’s licence. Businesses may continue to call the CFP at the toll-free number to confirm the buyer’s licence prior to completing a sale.


Finally after years of fighting this travesty of injustice. One of the chains imposed upon us is slipped. Now is a time to dance, celebrate and enjoy the taste of victory, for tomorrow it's back into the breech to do battle once more against the rest of the firearms Act.

A big thank you to all that have fought this!

Sucks though for our Quebec brethren, patience your time is coming!

Coming out of the gun closet part 2

Me attempting to look good in an IPSC competition


Sorry for the lag between posts, kids, work, life and video games keep getting in the way! This is the 2nd post in this series, a link to the preceding post is at the bottom of the post.

Do you need a licence and how do you get one?



Short answer is yes, long answer is that if the gun you have is not considered a firearm then no you do not. These would be pellet guns with a muzzle velocity below 500 feet per second (FPS) and antique guns. Police Officers on duty do not need a licence to carry their issue firearms or taking possession of a firearm while carrying out their duties. It comes to a shock to them that they can’t stroll into a gun store and buy a gun or ammo without the licence. As the executor of a will you can take possession of firearms as part of the estate, see more here.

The current gun licence is commonly referred to as a “PAL” which means Possession and Acquisition Licence. The old licences were called FAC’s and there is also the POL which stands for Possession Only Licence. These are being phased out.

The PAL is a Licence for the Individual. It allows them with restrictions to buy, sell and own guns. It is distinct from the gun registry. To get a PAL you will need to take a course and complete an exam. At which point your application is referred to the RCMP who will investigate you to determine if you have any criminal record or probations. You will need to seek permission from your spouse or guardians (if 16 or less years of age), supply character references. Quebec has Law 9 which is a far more invasive review (and possibly unconstitutional)

Once you have passed successfully through all stages of the review you become the proud holder of a PAL. Make careful note of the expiry date, if you let expire and have guns, you are now a criminal.


What is gun registration and does it work?



The first gun registry in Canada was invoked in 1934 and required you to register your handgun. This was to keep guns out of the hands of undesirables such as union members who were seen as potential communists. The current combined long gun and handgun registry created in 1998 and came into force in 2002 covers both long guns (rifles, shotguns) and handguns. The reason for the implementation of the long gun registry is unclear, proponents claim it helps them keep guns out of the hands of criminals, opponents of the registry claiming the real reason is the eventual confiscation of all firearms. I favour the latter theory as history shows us once the government know what, where and who has them, they will eventually come for them. The former theory is flawed as criminals don’t register guns and handgun crime is rising despite 77 years of a handgun registry. For more on the failures of the registry see my other blog “Epic failures of the gun registry”

How it works
Within the database firearms are identified by what is called a Firearm Reference Table (FRT) Number. Each model of gun known to be in Canada is given a FRT number, without out this number a gun can’t be registered, so if they “withdraw” the FRT number from the database, then the model of gun disappears and the clerks at the CFC can’t find it, convenient way to get rid of unwanted types of guns right?

If I go to a store and say I want to buy a Non-restricted Ruger 10/22 carbine, the store clerk takes my PAL, phones the CFC and requests that a Ruger 10/22 carbine Serial XXXXXX currently registered to the store, be transferred to myself, the CFC checks my record and sees that my PAL is valid and there are no prohibitions on my file. If so they then authorize the store to sell me the rifle, and give them a transfer number. I can then take the gun home, in a couple of weeks (in BC, the CFO office is fairly quick and the ladies are quite nice, Ontario and Quebec not so much) I will get a registration certificate in the mail. I must carry a copy of it with me when using/transporting the gun.
Now if I wanted to buy a restricted rifle or pistol, it gets more complicated, I select the gun and pay the money, the store calls the CFC, they start the transfer process, generally it will take a couple of days to a couple of weeks, when the transfer is complete I can pick up the gun and take home. I will need a Temporary “Authorization to Transport” (ATT), once I get the registration papers, I can then use my long term ATT to transport the gun (more on ATT’s later) anywhere that I am authorized. This process varies between Provinces.



What types of guns can you own?


My Dlask 10/22 target rifle

A non-restricted PAL will allow you to own any non-restricted rifle or shotgun, a restricted PAL will allow to own handguns and restricted firearms such as the AR-15. All handguns except for antiques are either restricted or Prohibited (either by barrel length or calibre). Rifles & shotguns are restricted either by barrel length or by name ( Such as the AR-15 and variants)
Prohibited firearms include pistols with a barrel length of less than 106mm, calibres of .25 & ,32cal. Rifles are generally prohibited by name (FAL, AK-47 and variants) Only individuals that are grandfathers or have certain special licences can posses these. If you let your PAL expire, before getting the new one, you will lose your grandfathered status. If you didn’t bother to convert to the PAL system from the FAC and you own one of these you are screwed.


A Degtyaryov's infantry machine gun (no you can't have one, it's prohibited)

Automatic firearms such as sub-machine guns, automatic rifles, pistols, light and medium machine guns are prohibited firearms, only a select few individuals are grandfathered for these and a number of businesses have licence to posses them, generally for the movie industry. To note I am not aware of any homicide ever committed with a registered automatic firearm. They are just to valuable and expensive.
Lastly antique guns such as early Webely MkII revolvers and old muskets are not considered firearms and do not require a PAL .

Replica guns are prohibited, but the law defining such has been murky, any device designed to look like a firearm that can shoot a projectile such as Airsoft guns are not replicas and are not banned. For more information go to Airsoft Canada.

More to come in “Coming out of the gun closest part III”

Older posts in this series
“Coming out of the gun closest part I”

Charges recommended against Kelowna Mountie

In case you have not been following the news about a Mountie kicking a individual in the face during a takedown, you can read the background here. The RCMP certainly are handling the PR side of this incident better than the Vancouver Airport Tasering affair. To their credit they immediately called in the Abbotsford police force to investigate. Those officers are recommending charges of assault against the police officer and based what I have seen on the video, rightly so. The person was complying with the officers instructions, just not as fast as they would like.
You can bet that at the very least this officers career in BC is done, even if he gets off the charge. He may also be facing a civil suit for damages. You can also bet that this video will be shown to new recruits as a prime example of how NOT to conduct an arrest under these circumstances.
It is interesting to note the officers response to the reporter about the call they had. Seems the information they got was not anywhere close to the truth. The fact that he had just removed a shotgun which was trigger locked should have been a clue that something was not right about the story (Most bad guys don’t trigger lock their guns)
I have to wonder though just how different the RCMP would have acted if they hadn’t been aware of this video, would it have turned into another attempted coverup until the video surfaced?

Over 375 people attended a protest rally outside of the detachment headquarters. I noted that many of them were middle age normal citizens and not your regular protest types. Video and news story of protest here.

Warning there is some blood shown in the video

RCMP statment of 2008-2009 costs for the gun registry

http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/fire-feu-eval/eval-eng.pdf

The figures below are the ones released by the RCMP, you can bet they kept them as low as possible and it does not include any near term foreseeable costs such as computer upgrades or building upkeep. It's a not a very complete breakdown and I suspect other costs might have been transferred to other departments to reduce the total apparent cost.

It’s clear that the cost of the current registry operations is not the $4 million many supporters have claimed it was. 20 million may not sound like much, but it would pay for 200 more Police officers every year.

I will update if I get more information, thank you to EEJayde

We can't fight casino money laundering says RCMP

Well maybe if the government had spent some of the 2 billion used for the firearms registry to build up a high tech crime branch then yes they could tackle this area. It was made clear to the governments that the casino’s were going to be the best place to launder money for organized crime, but the lure or jobs and easy tax money won out. The fact that they didn’t do anything to deal with this threat that they knew was coming just shows how short sighted and warped senior levels of government and the RCMP are.
You can read more here on the whining of why they can’t do what they are supposed to be doing.