Dennis Olson
New member
I pulled this off another BBS. Thought you all might enjoy reading it. Yes it CAN happen in Amerika....
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It is September, 1998 in Anytown, Canada. You walk past the local gun store, and, acting on impulse go back, step in and fall in love! There, locked behind glass, is the gun of your dreams. That special handgun you KNOW is going to make you look good on the range. And the price is just too good to be true! It feels custom-made for your hand, and with a great deal of joy you say, "Wrap it up, I'll take it!"
Thus you have unknowingly taken the first step in a road becoming less and less traveled....
The first thing you are asked is, "Can I see your FAC?" While you look blankly the salesman, he says again he wants to see your Firearms Acquisition Certificate. While you are still looking blankly at him, he starts explaining to you.
"A firearms Acquisition Certificate (FAC) is required before you can purchase any firearm here in Canada. If you don't have a valid FAC, you must get one, and when you have it, you come back and I will sell you the gun. By the way here is a list of instructors."
Feeling a bit let down, you take the paper and mumble your way back home, and start phoning.
FAC Instructors and Examiners are certified by the Federal Government to teach and test for FAC's. You discover that you have to take a minimum of 12 hours of classes, and two tests, one written and one practical to prove you have basic firearms knowledge, and supposedly some safety knowledge as well. Cost $100-125. Finally you find someone who is putting on a course in the next week who has an opening, so you leap at it. After all, you don't know enough about the current legislation to challenge the course, so feel this is the best plan. Time passed since you saw the gun - 1 week. You take the course, think it's interesting, but seems to be too repetitive and doesn't really attend to safety too much, but what the heck, now you can go get your gun. Wrong! Course takes two weeks spread out over several evenings - Cost to date: $125.00 - time passed 3 weeks.
You make your first trip to your local police department to get the forms you need to fill out to apply for the FAC. This four page triplicate form is an imposing 8.5"x14" and asks such questions as what colour are your eyes, blue green, gray, hazel or maroon? **Maroon? Just where do they think you come from?** They ask about your private life, family life, health, finances, relationship breakups, prior brushes with the law and about medications you may be taking. Severe penalties are dispensed if you lie on this form, it warns ominously. You also have to acquire the oaths of two people who have know you for more than three years who think it's ok if you have a gun... BUT... they must be of certain "Classes" of people.. Doctors, lawyers, military officers, tribal band leaders, fellow employees, hair dressers, clergy or your (married to you) spouse (common-law, while good enough to ding you for taxes is not good enough to sign as a character witness). There goes another week! Time passed - 4 weeks.
So you take your recently acquired certification of course completion; two passport photos of yourself ($12.00); the fee for an FAC application which is non-refundable ($50.00) and the completed application form to your local police department. Again, you get excited thinking the gun is now yours.
Wait!! The police officer takes your money, application, etc. and says "OK it'll come in the mail if you qualify. We keep it here for 28 days before we even start to process, most are taking 6-7 months to come back" SIX TO SEVEN MONTHS!! In that time frame the police will contact your two endorsers and grill them about you, they will check your neighbours to see what they think of you (**nothing like letting the whole neighbourhood know you will have guns on premises) they will call your employer, and lastly, but not least they call up any ex's in your last two year time frame and ask them if they feel alright about your owning firearms!!! But it's the law.. What can you do? (Cost to date: $187.00 +14% tax).
You are one of the lucky ones, your FAC arrives in a speedy six months. Full of joy you rush down to the gun store to finally buy your gun. With a flourish you present your FAC and plunk your money down, drooling over your new toy. The salesman carefully writes down reams of information on his receipt book, name, address, gun stats, numbers, and on and on, and you bounce from foot to foot in anticipation. You sign a big legal book stating you have actually purchased this firearm, the salesman takes your money and hands you the sales slip and smiles. "When you get your Permit To Register come back and we will give you your gun." Stunned you once more go to your local police department. Of course you don't live near the gun store, and have to go to the police in your jurisdiction so waste another day or two there, but we won't count those. Time passed - 7 months.
The police take your sales slip and tell you to come back the next day or so, and they will have the Permit filled out for you. Getting really frustrated you come back two days later, and they ask what time you want on the Permit. They guestimate it takes 1 hour from the gun store to the police department.. So they give you a specified time span of 1.5 hours to complete the task. To the cop shop? "Yes, you have to bring the gun back here for verification." So off you go to the gun store, show the salesman the Permit and he says, "OK, where's your case and locks?" Numbly you hand over money for a small gun case; one trigger lock and one case lock. ($40.00) You notice the time and drive through heavy traffic and get to the cop shop barely within the specified time. You open the case, and the officer carefully inspects the firearms verifying all the numbers. You are planning some weekend shooting tomorrow. Wrong. The officer smiles, locks the case and walks off with it saying, "When you Registration Certificate comes in the mail from Ottawa, phone us and let us know and we will start the next step.. Have a nice day!" Cost to date: $227.00 +14% tax (not including the firearm), time passed (and now we will count those days last week.. 7 months, 1 week! And you are getting REALLY pissed off.
Patience has worn extremely thin by now, but at this point you have invested quite a bit of money, so you wait... and wait... and wait. Finally anywhere from 3-6 months later, your green registration slips arrive from Ottawa (we will use 3 months in our count). Ecstatic, you race down to your local police department to claim your gun... finally! Time passed: 10 months 1 week)
There you are informed that before you can pick up your gun, they must do one more check and make sure there are no restraints against you... after all it has been months now!! The next day, getting really cranky, you go down to the police and FINALLY, you can take you gun home with you on a Permit to Transport... but again it has a very short time span. As you are leaving, you comment that "Finally I can go shooting!!" "Wait", says the officer, "do you have a valid Permit to Carry? Firearms Licence? Club Membership Card? Need those before you can go out and use that thing!" WHAT?????
As pissed as hell you slam into the house, chuck the locked case in the gun safe and start dialing your local gun club. Yes you can get a membership for $50, and yes they will sign an application for a Permit to Carry stating you are a member in good standing... but not until next month's meeting. It will take about 3 month's to get the Permit back, and you can not go to the range without one, they remind you the penalty is 2 years in jail and a hefty fine!!! Livid you go to a sporting goods store and buy the Firearms Licence issued by the Provincial Government (**knowing damn well it is just a tax grab**), and they nail you another $21.00. By now you are furious.
At the club meeting 3 months later you finally get your Permit to Carry. Time passed: 13 ½ months - Cost: $298.00 + 14% taxes NOT INCLUDING ANY FIREARM OR AMMO.
Finally you can go to the range. But somehow, the thrill of discovery 13 ½ months ago just isn't there.
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Dennis
-------------------------
It is September, 1998 in Anytown, Canada. You walk past the local gun store, and, acting on impulse go back, step in and fall in love! There, locked behind glass, is the gun of your dreams. That special handgun you KNOW is going to make you look good on the range. And the price is just too good to be true! It feels custom-made for your hand, and with a great deal of joy you say, "Wrap it up, I'll take it!"
Thus you have unknowingly taken the first step in a road becoming less and less traveled....
The first thing you are asked is, "Can I see your FAC?" While you look blankly the salesman, he says again he wants to see your Firearms Acquisition Certificate. While you are still looking blankly at him, he starts explaining to you.
"A firearms Acquisition Certificate (FAC) is required before you can purchase any firearm here in Canada. If you don't have a valid FAC, you must get one, and when you have it, you come back and I will sell you the gun. By the way here is a list of instructors."
Feeling a bit let down, you take the paper and mumble your way back home, and start phoning.
FAC Instructors and Examiners are certified by the Federal Government to teach and test for FAC's. You discover that you have to take a minimum of 12 hours of classes, and two tests, one written and one practical to prove you have basic firearms knowledge, and supposedly some safety knowledge as well. Cost $100-125. Finally you find someone who is putting on a course in the next week who has an opening, so you leap at it. After all, you don't know enough about the current legislation to challenge the course, so feel this is the best plan. Time passed since you saw the gun - 1 week. You take the course, think it's interesting, but seems to be too repetitive and doesn't really attend to safety too much, but what the heck, now you can go get your gun. Wrong! Course takes two weeks spread out over several evenings - Cost to date: $125.00 - time passed 3 weeks.
You make your first trip to your local police department to get the forms you need to fill out to apply for the FAC. This four page triplicate form is an imposing 8.5"x14" and asks such questions as what colour are your eyes, blue green, gray, hazel or maroon? **Maroon? Just where do they think you come from?** They ask about your private life, family life, health, finances, relationship breakups, prior brushes with the law and about medications you may be taking. Severe penalties are dispensed if you lie on this form, it warns ominously. You also have to acquire the oaths of two people who have know you for more than three years who think it's ok if you have a gun... BUT... they must be of certain "Classes" of people.. Doctors, lawyers, military officers, tribal band leaders, fellow employees, hair dressers, clergy or your (married to you) spouse (common-law, while good enough to ding you for taxes is not good enough to sign as a character witness). There goes another week! Time passed - 4 weeks.
So you take your recently acquired certification of course completion; two passport photos of yourself ($12.00); the fee for an FAC application which is non-refundable ($50.00) and the completed application form to your local police department. Again, you get excited thinking the gun is now yours.
Wait!! The police officer takes your money, application, etc. and says "OK it'll come in the mail if you qualify. We keep it here for 28 days before we even start to process, most are taking 6-7 months to come back" SIX TO SEVEN MONTHS!! In that time frame the police will contact your two endorsers and grill them about you, they will check your neighbours to see what they think of you (**nothing like letting the whole neighbourhood know you will have guns on premises) they will call your employer, and lastly, but not least they call up any ex's in your last two year time frame and ask them if they feel alright about your owning firearms!!! But it's the law.. What can you do? (Cost to date: $187.00 +14% tax).
You are one of the lucky ones, your FAC arrives in a speedy six months. Full of joy you rush down to the gun store to finally buy your gun. With a flourish you present your FAC and plunk your money down, drooling over your new toy. The salesman carefully writes down reams of information on his receipt book, name, address, gun stats, numbers, and on and on, and you bounce from foot to foot in anticipation. You sign a big legal book stating you have actually purchased this firearm, the salesman takes your money and hands you the sales slip and smiles. "When you get your Permit To Register come back and we will give you your gun." Stunned you once more go to your local police department. Of course you don't live near the gun store, and have to go to the police in your jurisdiction so waste another day or two there, but we won't count those. Time passed - 7 months.
The police take your sales slip and tell you to come back the next day or so, and they will have the Permit filled out for you. Getting really frustrated you come back two days later, and they ask what time you want on the Permit. They guestimate it takes 1 hour from the gun store to the police department.. So they give you a specified time span of 1.5 hours to complete the task. To the cop shop? "Yes, you have to bring the gun back here for verification." So off you go to the gun store, show the salesman the Permit and he says, "OK, where's your case and locks?" Numbly you hand over money for a small gun case; one trigger lock and one case lock. ($40.00) You notice the time and drive through heavy traffic and get to the cop shop barely within the specified time. You open the case, and the officer carefully inspects the firearms verifying all the numbers. You are planning some weekend shooting tomorrow. Wrong. The officer smiles, locks the case and walks off with it saying, "When you Registration Certificate comes in the mail from Ottawa, phone us and let us know and we will start the next step.. Have a nice day!" Cost to date: $227.00 +14% tax (not including the firearm), time passed (and now we will count those days last week.. 7 months, 1 week! And you are getting REALLY pissed off.
Patience has worn extremely thin by now, but at this point you have invested quite a bit of money, so you wait... and wait... and wait. Finally anywhere from 3-6 months later, your green registration slips arrive from Ottawa (we will use 3 months in our count). Ecstatic, you race down to your local police department to claim your gun... finally! Time passed: 10 months 1 week)
There you are informed that before you can pick up your gun, they must do one more check and make sure there are no restraints against you... after all it has been months now!! The next day, getting really cranky, you go down to the police and FINALLY, you can take you gun home with you on a Permit to Transport... but again it has a very short time span. As you are leaving, you comment that "Finally I can go shooting!!" "Wait", says the officer, "do you have a valid Permit to Carry? Firearms Licence? Club Membership Card? Need those before you can go out and use that thing!" WHAT?????
As pissed as hell you slam into the house, chuck the locked case in the gun safe and start dialing your local gun club. Yes you can get a membership for $50, and yes they will sign an application for a Permit to Carry stating you are a member in good standing... but not until next month's meeting. It will take about 3 month's to get the Permit back, and you can not go to the range without one, they remind you the penalty is 2 years in jail and a hefty fine!!! Livid you go to a sporting goods store and buy the Firearms Licence issued by the Provincial Government (**knowing damn well it is just a tax grab**), and they nail you another $21.00. By now you are furious.
At the club meeting 3 months later you finally get your Permit to Carry. Time passed: 13 ½ months - Cost: $298.00 + 14% taxes NOT INCLUDING ANY FIREARM OR AMMO.
Finally you can go to the range. But somehow, the thrill of discovery 13 ½ months ago just isn't there.
-------------------------
Dennis
