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The Three Legal Classes of Firearms in
Canada:
Non-restricted firearms are ordinary
hunting and sporting rifles, shotguns and airguns with an overall length of 660mm or
greater. Many airguns fall into this class because they are capable of
achieving a muzzle velocity of 500 feet per second. If it is a
centrefire semi-automatic firearm, the barrel length must be at least
470mm to be non-restricted. These firearms must be stored, transported
and displayed according to Federal regulations and you need a firearms
licence to possess them. Provincial and municipal rules may further
regulate these firearms (e.g., Ontario hunting regulations
require that firearms being transported be encased at night). Certain
firearms, although they meet the above criteria, have been classified
as "restricted" or "prohibited" by order-in-council.
Restricted firearms include many handguns
and other firearms which do not meet the above specifications. Some
firearms are classified as "restricted" by Federal order-in-council. In
late 2022 the government stopped the legal transfer of handguns, but
you can still use others' handguns. A transport
permit is required to transport a restricted firearm from the
location where the firearm is registered. Anyone with the appropriate
firearms licence and a valid purpose can still acquire restricted long
guns. Hunting with restricted firearms is not allowed in Canada.
Prohibited firearms include all fully
automatic firearms, converted automatics and a variety of other scary
looking firearms which have been classified as "prohibited" by
order-in-council. All variants of the AR-15 genre of rifle were
prohibited this way in May of 2022. Some types of prohibited firearms
are "grandfathered" to their current legal owners (i.e., owners
are allowed to keep them), but cannot be transfered to
non-grandfathered individuals. Firearms converted from full-automatic
to semi-automatic, and many handguns (barrel lengths less than or equal
to 105mm, .25 or .32 calibre) fall into the prohibited class. If you do
not already own prohibited long guns, there is generally no legal means
to acquire firearms of this type.
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