Firearm Ownership Regs in Canada

[RustySpringfield]

My younger brother is moving to a small town in BC this August to live with his wife who is a Canadian citizen. He mentioned that her son and his father-in-law are into hunting (no surprise). Suddenly my brother is interested in hunting and fishing. He's always been into skiing, but never mentioned shooting sports.

Anyway, I was under the impression that firearm ownership was a hassle up there. Guys on the old CAS-L would grumble about the hassle of crossing the border to participate in matches up there. What should I warn him about? Will he have to jump through a bunch of hoops to own a rifle up there?

[RattlesnakeJack]

Hi Rusty:

British Columbia is a pretty nice place .... though it does have a bit of a reputaion of being the "California" of Canada - but that is mostly in relation to the Lower Mainland (Greater Vancouver area) and the Provincial capital of Victoria at the south end of Vancouver Island - the bulk of the population is concentrated in those highly urbanized areas.  What area is he going to?

As for firearms ownership, things are nowhere near as bad up here in Canada as many believe!   

The new regs (Federally regulated, though there are some differences on admin practices and attitudes from onw region of the country to another) which came into effect in 1998 (registration of long guns, etc.) are a bit of a P.I.T.A., and that is when it became rather more involved for shooters to bring their firearms into Canada.  (But it is no more hassle than the effort I have to go through to get a Form6NIA to bring mine into the USA ...)

Rather than expound at great length, I'll refer you and your brother to the website of the Canadian Firearms Centre, which has lots of browseable information, in summaries and "Frequently Asked Questions" pages .... (this links to the English-language default page, as I assume you won't want to try to puzzle out the French version ... )

http://www.cfc-cafc.gc.ca/default_e.asp