Amnesty provided for restricted rifles until ‘ permanent fix’ can be formulated
Owners of two lines of rifles that the RCMP recently reclassified as prohibited will be shielded from criminal sanction for possessing them under an amnesty that took effect late last week and that will last for two years.
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, whose office has maintained that he was not consulted on the decision to reclassify the guns, has also vowed to introduce longer- term measures in coming weeks that will protect gun owners from any future “retroactive and unpredictable decisions.”
The Conservative government, which brands itself as a champion of gun owners’ rights, has faced a barrage of criticism from gun enthusiasts after the RCMP firearms program quietly changed the status of a family of Swiss Arms- brand rifles, as well as certain Czechmade CZ- 858 rifles, to prohibited from non- restricted or restricted.
So far, the RCMP has remained silent on its decision to reclassify the guns.
But according to the RCMP website, officials may change their opinions about a firearms’ status if they determine that information initially provided by the importer was wrong or incomplete or if they feel a firearm can too easily be modified or converted from semi- automatic to full-automatic.
The temporary amnesty announced by Blaney was made through an order in council, which is expected to be published on the Privy Council Office website in the coming days.
“Recent decisions made by the Canadian Firearms Program have had the effect of exposing thousands of lawabiding Canadians to potential criminal sanctions.
“Owners of the affected firearms can rest assured that they will face no sanctions as a result of the continued possession of their private property,” Blaney said in a statement released Friday.
Blaney said the amnesty was intended as a short- term measure until a “permanent fix” is in place.
“It is our intention to bring forward measures in the coming weeks to protect all lawabiding firearms owners from these types of retroactive and unpredictable decisions,” he said.
The National Firearms Association has been encouraging gun owners to write to the prime minister to replace the Firearms Act and end the “arbitrary” reclassification of firearms.
“Gun owners should not have to worry about being made a paper criminal by bureaucratic fiat or whim,” according to a proposed letter posted on the association’s website.