Today I got to visit the Canadian facilities of Italy’s Beretta Holding SpA, whose brands include Benelli, Beretta, Sako, Stoeger and Tikka guns, and Burris and Steiner optics. My hosts showed me the offices and target range, but we spent most of the time in the showroom.
Canada’s gun imports surged in the first quarter as companies stocked up to shield themselves from government import rules that take effect June 1 and threaten to hurl the industry into a crisis. The government said it’s planning an update soon.
Here is a 2010 report that recommended the RCMP adopt the AR-15 rifle. The study and its author were in focus this week at a trial to decide if Canada’s federal police are guilty of having failed to provide appropriate equipment and training to officers responding to attackers. The case is relevant to all of us.
I drive south from my hotel in Calgary for about 45 minutes and park in front of a low-rise building surrounded by fields. It’s 9:45 a.m. on the last Monday in January and I’m here to meet Terry Korth, the owner and chief executive officer of one of Canada’s largest distributors of guns and ammunition. I…
(Update 06 May 2018: Updated chart and notes. 20 May 2017: Added new info under Additions.) More than 90,000 Canadians are authorized to carry loaded guns on their person in daily life, mainly for self-defence against human attackers. More than 90 percent are civilian police and law enforcement, or military. If they were all on duty at…
I arrived in Atlanta today for the annual meeting of the U.S. National Rifle Association, which describes itself as “America’s longest-standing civil rights organization.” As far as I’m aware, the group’s more than 5 million members make it the biggest shooter’s rights association in the world. Some 80,000 people are expected at this year’s gathering, more than…
The number of Canadians with gun licences rose to a record in 2016 for the second consecutive year, as men, women and youth sought firearms for fun, sport, hunting and collecting.
The following was written by Steve Barta in December 2015 after a shooting massacre in San Bernardino, California, and tweeted to the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights. The CCFR replied today, just as news was breaking of a shooting attack against police officers in Paris. Timeless relevance?
Today is the 35th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The document’s legal and political significance and symbolism are as important as they are controversial for all Canadians, especially those of us who buy, sell, own, use or work with guns.
Canadians paid $380,600 to the Coalition for Gun Control in 2002 through government funding, according to a report by the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada and published by Hoplite Tactical. Even if it was 15 years ago, it shows how gun owners, shooters and hunters finance those fighting us. This isn’t just ancient history.
The bigger story of what happened this week, beyond the micro-victory of getting the CBC to remove and fix a short video on Canada’s gun laws, is the display of power by grassroots, decentralized, uncoordinated, independent, networked actors.
The CBC temporarily removed its video on “Guns in Canada 101” to correct a few errors following a complaint to the ombudsman, after shooters, gun-rights groups and media criticized the clip and the company for the inaccuracies and misrepresentations.
(COVID-19 Update, 16 April 2020: The licensing system is shut down at the moment, so the timelines here don’t apply. See my Covid-19 news. Subscribe at the bottom for updates.) TheGunBlog.ca — Fodollah (his username on Reddit) of Toronto got his gun licence this week after roughly four months and almost $500. Congratulations! TheGunBlog.ca asked him…
Canada’s firearm industry is in turmoil over import-marking rules that start June 1, threatening gun shops, importers and consumers with surging prices, business closures and more than 5,000 job losses.
Gary Mauser, one of Canada’s leading academics on firearms, inaugurated his new website today, Justice for Gun Owners: Fighting for Sensible Canadian Gun Laws.
(Update: CBC temporarily removed the video on April 12 after a complaint to its ombudsman. Christopher di Armani saw that as a victory for shooters. I agree and develop that theme here.) The Canadian Shooting Sports Association did a superb point-by-point takedown of a CBC video on gun laws packed with errors, misleading suggestions and possibly a wrongful confiscation by law-enforcement officers.
Looking for a place in Canada to shoot pistol-rifle-shotgun matches in the expanding sport of 3-Gun? Then check out the list of clubs published today by the Hunting Gear Guy.
The Internet turns up conflicting opinions on whether it’s legal in Canada to store guns at a cottage, with a friend, or in a storage locker, so TheGunBlog.ca asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who administer the Canadian Firearms Program, and Pierre Plourde, a criminal-defence lawyer and gun-rights activist.
Ceska Zbrojovka AS’s Scorpion EVO 3 S1 gun chambered in 9 mm was approved for sale in Canada after the RCMP classified it as a “Restricted” firearm for use with five-round magazines.
Sig Sauer Inc.’s MPX firearm chambered in 9 mm is now available to Canadian shooters after the RCMP classified it as a “Restricted” carbine for use with a five-round magazine, the same as an AR-15. A “non-restricted” model may come later.
