Quote:
Originally Posted by The Saint
Is that what you're worried about? The RCMP?
Stop worrying.
I know for a fact that the RCMP distinguishes between legitimate, range-tag activity involving pneumatic arms and robbing a bank with the damn things. Because I've interviewed the Canadian Firearms Program extensively.
And I know for a fact RCMP experts testified before Parliamentary committee to effect the exclusion of things like paintball markers from registration and licensing. Yes, they talked about what the paintball markers were for, for people to point and shoot at each other. To MPs.
There is absolutely no surprise or anything new in the SCC decision. All this was plain as daylight 5 years ago, when I was doing research on the CC.
A better question you should be asking is what people are paying their NFA dues for, if their recent hyperbole is indicative of their grasp of Canadian firearm legislation.
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For seven years the RCMP approved the importation and sale of the CZ 858 rifle as a non restricted rifle. Then, as a result of a somewhat unrelated investigation, they realized that the law relating to the history of the manufacture of SOME of those firearms was misapplied, and in fact they were prohibited. Poof. Overnight tens of thousands of rifles became prohibited and subject to confiscation, and remain in legal limbo subject to a narrowly worded amnesty. They can no longer be used the way they were before, must be stored to a far higher standard than previously, and several have initiated costly legal action to try and get the decision reversed.
For two decades the RCMP approved the importation of 25 rd magazines for rim fire rifles, and in response to not really anything, determined that if it fits in a pistol, its a pistol mag, and the pistol limits apply. Poof, hundreds of thousands of magazines are now prohibited devices.
Many people probably don't care about what that means to them. And maybe nothing bad will ever come of it. Many gun owners said the same about the firearms act twenty years ago. Try and find one who hasn't changed his tune.
But yeah, the RCMP, who hold the reins on what is or isn't legal in Canada, despite being in a constitutional conflict of interest, IS what I'm concerned about.