Need help with Deactivation - Saskatoon

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Animatronic Fireman

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Hello

My friend's dad passed away and he had a non dewat Luger. His dad didn't have a prohib license, so I'm assuming my friend has to either get it deactivated or turned over to the RCMP. Is there anyone in Saskatoon that could help with deactivating this, he'd rather keep it deactivated or sell it than turned over to the police for nothing. What is the proper way to go about this? What is the average value of a deactivated Luger?

Thanks

Mods - if this is in the wrong forum, my apologies please move it.
 
There are a couple of other options; the magazine and the upper portion without the barrel are non restricted, just spare parts and can be sold. Also you can gamble on getting it registered by destroying the original barrel and re barreling with a longer barrel. In the absence of the short barrel the upper portion can be taken to a gunsmith without a license. Alternately if you know someone with a lathe, the cheapest solution to re barreling would be to turn down a scrap 30 cal rifle barrel and chamber to 30 luger caliber. While the gun can be shot that way, once registered, it can also be re barreled to 9 mm with a legal barrel. The qualifications are that to be economical, you need to be able to remove and destroy the short barrel yourself and to make and install the new barrel yourself so that if registration is turned down, you are not out of pocket anything but your labour. The gun does need to be verified in its new configuration before it can be registered and you cannot get a ATT to transport the frame (basically the handle) to a verifier because you need a registration certificate to get an ATT

cheers mooncoon
 
A few questions to answer here.
1. Was the gun registered? If so the gun may qualify as a 12/7 (manufactured pre-1946) firearm in which case your friend could take possession of it without altering it if he has an RPAL. There seem to be differing opinions on this but some people on this site claim that if a now prohibited handgun was registered under the old 'green slip' system the CFC will allow it to be re-registered as a prohib. There are some existing threads on this.
2. Is your friend the Executor of his father's will? If so he should be in no rush to alter/sell/turn in the gun until all options have been explored. Being the Executor means he has at least a year and maybe more to legally dispose of the gun (the law just says he has a reasonable amount of time to do so).

I know I'm being wildly optimistic here but I would wait until the Common Sense Firearms Act is passed before rushing out to have a prohib pistol deactivated. To whit:

"Power to prescribe the classes of firearms
The amendments to the Criminal Code would contain a definition for non-restricted firearms, which it currently does not, including authority to prescribe firearms as non-restricted. As well, the amendments would give the Governor in Council authority to prescribe firearms as restricted. This gives the Government the final say on classification decisions, following the receipt of independent expert advice."

I'm no lawyer nor do I play one on TV but a possible interpretation of this is that the Governor in Council could declare that 12/6 handguns are not exceptionally dangerous (as the Liberals claimed them to be) and therefore should be classified as restricted rather than prohibited. That would make a gun such as the Luger in question restricted only and therefore registerable by your friend if he has an RPAL or sellable to someone with an RPAL.

A lot of unknowns at this point, none of which will be solved by running out and dewatting a gun that may not need to be.
 
I will have to talk to him, not sure if there was a will in place, but his mom is still alive and the pistol is at her house. It was found when they were going through his stuff, came as a surprise as no one knew it was there. Is there anyway to determine if it was registered? I doubt any paperwork is sitting with it. There is a bit of urgency as his brother is married to a cop and wants to give it to RCMP.
 
Animatronic Fireman said:
Is there anyway to determine if it was registered?
Click to expand...

People in this situation often just call the Firearms Centre from a pay phone (so no home phone call display) and simply explain the situation. If they say there is no record of it being registered then say you will have to call the local police to pick it up. Then you explore your other options.

If the mother is the Executor then the same rules apply as if it was your friend. She does not need a licence to possess or sell the gun and the same "reasonable amount of time" rule applies. The only law that really affects it is safe storage. It has to be stored in accordance with current storage rules (i.e. locked container and trigger locked unless it is in a recognized gun safe in which case the trigger lock is not needed). Don't let the police (relative or not) stampede them into doing something stupid. At worst the gun can be stripped down & sold for parts (except for the frame & barrel). At best your friend may end up being able to keep the gun (if he has an RPAL) or selling it to a 12/6 owner which, depending on the make, model, year, etc. could be many hundreds of dollars. The police will give you a receipt and a thank you (if you're lucky :rolleyes:).
 
Hi everyone, I saw pictures of it today....turns out it is a Walther P38 and not a Luger P08, sorry for the confusion, was just going with what he told me.

Are these prohibited or restricted? Is there any specific markings that would indicate decent value, the condition looked good and it came with a holster and I think an extra mag.
 
Restricted only.
Send me pics please if you have them. PM sent with email.
Animatronic Fireman said:
Hi everyone, I saw pictures of it today....turns out it is a Walther P38 and not a Luger P08, sorry for the confusion, was just going with what he told me.

Are these prohibited or restricted? Is there any specific markings that would indicate decent value, the condition looked good and it came with a holster and I think an extra mag.
Click to expand...
 
Glad to hear this is starting to look promising for Op's friend. I can think of nothing worse than to turn over a piece of history, only to have it appear on the table at the "look at the guns we got off the street, aren't we great?" press orgy, before being melted down.
 
Thanks for everyone's help, and the kind words, seeing as how it's restricted and not prohibited, he's thinking of writing his RPAL so he can keep it.

Recce I replied to your PM before reading this message, I'll ask him to send me the pics.
 
to answer an earlier question; the executor can phone the CFP and ask if there are any firearms registered to the deceased's name. She would be asked to fax or scan and email a copy of the death certificate and the title page of the will plus the page naming the executor. All of that probably will not work if the deceased did not have and never has had a PAL since the searches seem to be done on the basis of license number only.

If you know a verifier who will come to the location of the gun (don't need an ATT that way) and verify the gun, you can apply to register it online and should expect a call the next day from Ottawa asking how you came to possess the gun. Such applications are processed on a case by case basis but I would expect the source you describe would probably be accepted and the gun registered. If the gun has been previously registered, I would expect that to turn up during the registration process and depending on the details of its previous history, you may have to turn it in.

cheers mooncoon
 
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