RCMP to confiscate more guns before registry ends
With the firearms registry on death’s door, the RCMP are using what little time remains to reclassify and seize certain scary-looking guns from Canadian firearms owners.
Among the guns being seized is a small-calibre varmint rifle called the Armi Jager AP80. Like many non-restricted rifles, it is semi-automatic and fires the .22-calibre bullet, the smallest and weakest used in any long gun.
The AP80 has been singled out because it looks too much like the infamous AK-47 assault rifle, although it shares no parts or technical similarities with that infamous battle rifle.
On Dec. 20, the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program — the office charged with administering gun control regulations in Canada — served hundreds of registered firearms owners with a “notice of revocation.”
“This notice is to inform you that the firearm registration certificates indicated below have been revoked,” says the letter, obtained by Postmedia News. “You have 30 days to deliver your firearms to a peace officer, firearms officer . . . or to otherwise lawfully dispose of them.”
The letter says the AP80 was “incorrectly registered” in the past, and is being banned because it is now considered a member of the AK-47 family.
The RCMP also issued a notice of revocation for the Walther G22 rifle on Dec. 30. This gun, also a .22-calibre semi-automatic, was prohibited because it has a removable “bullpup”-style shoulder stock. The Walther G22 vaguely resembles the Beretta Storm carbine, used in the Dawson College shootings.
Michael Patton, a spokesman for Public Security Minister Vic Toews, said these recent changes do not foreshadow a broader reclassification effort.
“As classification of firearms is a manual process, from time to time there are errors that need to be corrected,” he wrote in an e-mail. “However, let me be clear: there is no plan to broadly reclassify firearms.”
Ottawa firearms lawyer Solomon Friedman says the consequences could be severe for any owners who don’t comply with the confiscation notice.
“If you don’t surrender this without compensation, the RCMP can come to your home, seize it and charge you with possession of a prohibited firearm,” he said.
Friedman says some owners of the AP80 are considering challenging the seizure order in court.
Under current firearms law, bureaucrats at the Canadian Firearms Program can reclassify any firearm through orders-in-council. Such reclassifications are done without parliamentary input or oversight.