Somedays You Have To Wonder

I received a letter in the mail the other day from the Canadian Firearms Registry Center advising that my licence was expiring and that I should get it taken care of right away or I'd be in contravention of the firearms laws of Canada. Of course I immediately got ready to fill out the multitude of forms to renew my firearms licence.

After thinking about why I actually needed this licence (gopher shooting, etc) when I only have a single shot 22 rifle that I had purchased when I was up in the Arctic in 1968, I decided that it just was not worth my time and effort. I have been trucking this rifle around since 68 and it probably hasn't been fired in probably 20 years. So I figured I'd pass it along to a the local Constabulary for destruction.

I phoned the local office and had one of the members drop by to pick up my firearm and as I no longer needed my licence, I also gave him the licence to destroy. A normal person cannot destroy these licences as they are the property of the Government of Canada or so my letter from the Firearms Center advised.

When the member dropped by, he thought that he wouldn't mind purchasing my rifle and how much did I want for it. We agreed on a price and then he said that of course he would now have to get a valid firearms licence so he could legally possess the firearms.

Huh?

Yup, the Government of Canada decided that police officers did not need a licence to have their 9 mm pistols or to use their shotguns, long rifles etc as they had 'official training' in their use. The members got a blanket clearance on firearms. I found this interesting in that I know that for the last few years, the RCMP have not been training their members in long rifle use. They train them on their 9 mm handguns and their shotguns (and it is great training), but the RCMP has not had any long guns on their inventories for many years so the members have no or limited training on their use and safety. The thought was that the officers wouldn't have any use for long guns so their training was cancelled. I have heard that the Force is now reconsidering their postion on the long guns training and possession at the Detachments.

So here I was giving my legally registered rifle to a RCMP member who is not licenced to possess a long rifle. He can use his employer's firearms, but not own or possess any of his own as he didn't have a valid licence from the Canadian Firearms Registery Center. This just struck me as so odd, but then the Government of Canada works in mysterious ways at times.

However, a couple days later I was pleased to note that the Government of Canada issued an amendment to their Amnesty Period (2006) for the long rifle users of Canada and extended the period of the amnesty for another year until May 2008.

At least I now feel so much better that I know that the RCMP officer who picked up my rifle is now granted an amnesty for another year to take possession of my firearm.

For the record, I had received approximately 6 months of extensive training with rifles, handguns, grenades and other sundry munitions on my Basic Training in the Armed Forces. Then we re qualified throughout the years on the continued use and care of the aforementioned munitions. I also was qualified as a Range Officer with a fully accredited course from the Canadian Armed Forces in the early 90's and allowed to instruct cadets age 12 to 19 in the use and handling of 22 long rifles. All this and I still had to jump through hoops to have a lonely old single shot 22 in my possession. Yet, the RCMP officer did not need to have any such licence for him/her to take possession of my rifle.

Somedays you just have to question the wisdom of it all.