CANADIAN GUN POLICY- GENERAL
RESEARCH
Licenses:
*Handguns can't be
carried out of the home, either concealed or openly, except with a specific
license, which is usually only given to people who need guns for work.*
NO
LICENSE, whether it be Authorization to Transport (ATT) or Possession and
Acquisition License (PAL) is an authorization to carry a firearm. In order to
do that you need an Authorization to Carry (ATC). Generally you will not be
able to get an ATC, unless you have a job which requires it, such as
police work, guarding money, or work in wilderness areas with dangerous
wild animals. In very rare occasions they are issued for "protection of
life," usually when there is "an active police file and a verifiable
threat as well as police confirmation that they cannot provide adequate
protection for that person."
Being
worried that you'll be a victim of crime is not sufficient cause for the RCMP
CFP to issue you an ATC.
Inherited firearms:
The
executor/transferor must ensure the new owner is eligible to acquire and
possess the firearm, and both the executor and the new owner must participate
in the transfer process. The firearms license number of the deceased owner and
the new eligible owner must be provided. The registration certificate number
and firearm information (make, model, action, type, caliber, shots, barrel
length and serial number) for each firearm must also be provided.
Weapon categories:
Canada
puts guns into three categories: prohibited (most handguns that have a short
barrel or are .32 or .25 caliber, fully automatic weapons, guns with sawed-off
barrels, and certain military rifles like the AK-47), restricted (some
handguns, some semi-automatic rifles, and certain non-semiautomatic rifles),
and non-restricted (regular and some military-style shotguns and rifles). The
general idea is that more dangerous guns face much harsher regulations and
restrictions on purchase, ownership, and storage. Canada requires a license to
own a gun and ammunition, and buyers to pass safety course tests. Licenses must
be renewed every five years.
Weapon storage:
Non-restricted
weapons must be stored with a trigger or cable lock or locked in a room,
compartment, or container that is "difficult to break into."
Restricted and prohibited weapons must be both trigger/cable locked and locked
in a larger room or container, or else locked in a "vault, safe or room
that was built or modified specifically to store firearms safely." For
automatic weapons, any removable bolts must be removed. All guns must be
unloaded when stored or transported, and put in a lockable compartment (if
available) when left unattended in a car.
Background checks:
Licensing
requires fairly stringent background checks. An "applicant for a firearm
license in Canada must pass background checks, which consider criminal, mental,
addiction and domestic violence records," according to the Library of
Congress's review of Canada's laws. The background checks also consider whether
an applicant has been treated for a mental illness, if the person was
associated with violence, threats, or attempted violence, and whether the
person has a history of any behavior "that includes violence or threatened
or attempted violence on the part of the person against any person." On
top of traditional background checks, each license applicant needs to submit
third-party character references.
How this accessibility checks out
in terms of gun violence:
The U.S.
saw on average 8,592 gun homicides each year — 2.7 gun homicides for every
100,000 people — between 2010 and 2015. That’s more than five times the rate of
neighboring Canada, with 0.5 per 100,000.
CANADIAN GUN POLICY RESEARCH- FROM
MEMBER OF ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE (RCMP) AND EDMONTON POLICE SERVICE
(EPS):
License:
Although
you are not required to have a firearms safety license before going to training
for the RCMP or EPS (as your designation as a peace officer is enough to
possess your work firearms), you need a possession acquisition license if you
want a firearm outside of work. You may only take firearms home if they are
locked and stored properly, and this is usually only done if the owner is going
to the shooting range or has training the next day.
Background checks for possessing a
weapon:
The hiring
process for both RCMP and EPS is about a year. They both do background checks
and call or meet with a lot of people to ask if they think you shouldn't be a
police officer. Psychiatric tests are required, and especially for the police
force an in-person assessment with a psychiatrist is mandatory.. When a
student obtains their firearms license, the force calls said person’s
references and asks them questions; in Canada if you have a concern about
someone possessing a weapon you can call the firearms officer, voice your
concerns and they may revoke your license and tell you to turn in your
firearms. There are sections in the criminal code which also allow police to
seize firearms from those they are concerned with.
Firearm training:
-Consists
of at least 20 full days over the course of several weeks.
-The
officers usually do not touch a gun in the first days.
-Every
firearms training day you go over the four firearms safety rules.
-Each day
an emergency action plan and talk about safety is conducted.
-Officer-involved
shootings are reviewed, and students generate discussion on what was done well
and what to do differently.
-Students
are reprimanded for any unsafe actions (which are uncommon, and usually only as
serious as picking something up off the ground before being told to).
-Students are trained that their firearm is only for use when you fear death or grievous bodily harm.
“I do not
believe that citizens need to carry firearms to protect themselves. I
don't know any example of here where someone would say "you know what,
that wouldn't have happened if they had a gun." I think it would kind of
end up like with what happens with people who carry knives and they are often
the one getting stabbed and their protection backfires.”
OTHER RESOURCES:
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