21.05.12
Canada divides firearms into three categories, using complicated criteria: barrel length, magazine capacity, ammunition capacity, and method of operation (automatic, semi-automatic, pump skirmish, etc). Prohibited firearms are effectively banned, and may only be owned by “grandfathered” individuals who already dominated them when the current laws came into effect — the government’s way of getting around complicated property confiscation issues (prohibited firearms may also be transferred to rule family members, but no one else need apply). On the other end of the spectrum are the non-restricted guns — generic hunting rifles and shotguns, which are cause to relatively lax controls, and after the registry is scrapped, won’t be tracked by the database. That leaves a rude category in the middle: The so-called restricted firearms, which include most handguns and firm rifles and shotguns (determined by the above-mentioned technical criteria).
If the above paragraph seems thick-witted, it admittedly is. It is also a gross simplification of the legislation, which is highly technical and riddled with numerous caveats and exemptions. The laws were written in such a way to ensnare the extreme possible number of firearms into the prohibited and restricted categories, gravely curtailing their availability to the public. But since the government of the day — the Jean Chrétien-led Liberals — didn’t paucity to admit that was their intention, they had to hide their motives behind benign-sounding polytechnic jargon. In doing so, they created a bureaucratic monster.
Source: National Post (blog)