Last month, TFB reported on Canada’s sweeping new ban of more than 1500 firearms – including more than a few unusual or unexpected entries on the list. Of note were numerous items that civilians would have almost no opportunity to purchase anyway, such as rocket launchers and mortar systems. There are also tentative plans to institute a “buyback” program, although this looks to be still just in the planning stages and has not yet been funded or fully developed.

Since this initial reporting, information is beginning to emerge that Canada’s government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are expanding the original list. However, at least as of the time of this writing, they don’t appear to be readily or easily making any of this info publicly available this time.

According to Western Standard, a news media outlet focused on Western Canada, Matt Mendel – the owner of a gun store called Wanstall’s Hunting and Shooting, located in Maple Ridge, British Columbia – recently discovered something concerning. After getting word that additional firearms might be getting banned, he began digging through Canada’s national gun database – the Firearms Reference Table, or FRT. Mendel had noted on May 14th that a semi-automatic shotgun carried by his shop, the Typhoon F12, was listed as non-restricted. When he looked again the next day, it was shown as banned, and this wasn’t the only added firearm. Problematically, unlike with the initial ban list, this time no notification had been made by the RCMP or the Candian Firearms Program. Some of the relevant releases available on Canada’s government website were not dated until days or weeks after the database was updated, which appears to be the date of legal effect. Fortunately there is an amnesty period in effect until April 30, 2022.

Canada’s new legislation in effect – the RCMP seized these firearms, many of which are newly-banned, in the weeks following the ban’s announcement.

Western Standard quotes Mendel as saying, “If I wasn’t a diligent business owner and constantly kept my ear to the ground with this sort of thing, I could have been selling illegal firearms to people, and people could be possessing illegal firearms without even knowing it.” At the time Mendel estimated that his store had roughly a dozen models of newly-banned firearms that could no longer be sold in Canada, valued between $30,000-$40,000. The shop owner commented, “As a business we just hold on to that and we lose that money. We’ve paid for those firearms and now they’ll sit in my basement… forever essentially.” Even without criminal penalties, unfortunately these new laws will cost many Canadians a lot of money.

For TFB’s readers living in Canada, this clearly shows that it would be wise to maintain vigilant attentiveness to such changes, particularly given that they may not be readily apparent or publicly announced in a timely fashion. Stay safe! See you at the range.

Photos courtesy of the Canadian government and RCMP.