An interesting missive from the CFC regarding AR-15s

[cybershooters]

On the 31st January I sent the CFC this e-mail:

I was wondering if you could tell me how many AR-15 rifles and variants are registered in Canada in the CFC database?

(i.e. as defined in Part 2 of the Regulations prescribing certain firearms and other weapons, components and parts of weapons, accessories, cartridge magazines, ammunition and projectiles as prohibited or restricted.)

And today, on the 26th of November, they replied:

Thank you for your enquiry. We apologize for the delay in responding.

According to records in the Canadian Firearms Information System, 4,089 AR-15s are currently registered in Canada.

So there you go. My understanding is that there are something like 20,000 firearms registered as prohibited under 12(2)-12(5) plus rifles listed as restricted, so that means 20% of them are AR-15s. Although that figure may exclude AR-15s under 12(2) and (3), depends on how they did the search.

And we all know how infallible their searches are. Does it include your Dlask Arms lower or SDI whatchamacallit? Dunno. Personally I thought it would be more like seven or eight thousand.

 

[bear.23]

AR-15's are not prohibited just restricted....

Not sure where your understanding comes from....

I have a tendency not to believe those numbers They seem awful low...

Lets start with your prohib numbers there are 207931 in the system as of Sep 2008

 

[Paulinski]

Only 4089 AR-15 in Canada

That seems way too low.

 

[bear.23]

Seem to recall that one of the reasons they didn't prohibit them was they were used in service rifle a lot and becuase there were about 30K of them on the books...

 

[rattle]

4,089 AR-15s are currently registered in Canada

Shows how flawed their system is. I would bet my shirt that there is more than 4,000 alone in the the GVRD in BC alone nevermind Canada.

 

[cybershooters]

AR-15's are not prohibited just restricted....

Not sure where your understanding comes from....

I have a tendency not to believe those numbers They seem awful low...

Lets start with your prohib numbers there are 207931 in the system as of Sep 2008

That figure includes 12(6) and an AR-15 would be prohibited if it was full-auto or converted auto, which is what I was getting at. I was talking about prohibited firearms other than 12(6).

 

[Throttle_monkey1]

so is that colt ar15's? What about armalite m15s, bushys etc?

4000 seems way too low

 

[cybershooters]

Seem to recall that one of the reasons they didn't prohibit them was they were used in service rifle a lot and becuase there were about 30K of them on the books...

Well, the DCRA made representations, but let's face it, back then they weren't registered if the barrel was long enough so no-one had a clue how many there were in circulation, it was just a guess.

I don't think the numbers matter when it comes to DCRA, I'm sure the DCRA would make representations if F-class rifles were going to be banned and how many of those are in circulation? Not many.

The question was whether they had legitimate sporting uses, the answer was yes, so they didn't get enough points to be banned using the goofy classification system the DoJ came up with back in 1992. Same thing happened to the Mini-14, although that stayed non-restricted.

 

[rivetc78]

Only 4089 AR-15 in Canada

That seems way too low.

I agree. I'm not a die hard AR-Guy. Enjoy my pistols/shotguns more, but even I have 3

 

[cybershooters]

so is that colt ar15's? What about armalite m15s, bushys etc?

4000 seems way too low

My specific question said "and variants".

 

[Throttle_monkey1]

And they gave you 4089? That can't be right.

 

[Jess]

On the 31st January I sent the CFC this e-mail:



And today, on the 26th of November, they replied:



So there you go. My understanding is that there are something like 20,000 firearms registered as prohibited under 12(2)-12(5) plus rifles listed as restricted, so that means 20% of them are AR-15s. Although that figure may exclude AR-15s under 12(2) and (3), depends on how they did the search.

And we all know how infallible their searches are. Does it include your Dlask Arms lower or SDI whatchamacallit? Dunno. Personally I thought it would be more like seven or eight thousand.

This number seems very low.

 

[Paulinski]

Wast of money and time the registry is.

 

[sillymike]

This number seems very low.

There's only one way to fix that... Lets call in the CGN army! Every body go out and buy one

 

[KevinB]

My guess there would be 4k some odd varaints

 

[cancer]

They probably searched "AR-15" specifically. I've seen plenty of M4ergy licence certificates that didn't say AR-15 anywhere on them, then there are Norinco CQ311s, they don't say AR-15 either. Not to mention, the majority of those bureaucrats at the CFC wouldn't have any idea the difference between an M4 and an AR15.

 

[Matt_mg]

I'll go with the crowd: 4k seems awfully low.

 

[alexD92]

should compile the results with the name's of different brands, bushmaster, colt, armalite, etc.

 

[sogetthis]

They just don't know enough about the subject to do a proper search. For example, the reg cert for my Colt says nothing about it being an AR-15.... So it's doubtful that showed up in their search, right? Did they search by "Type" on the reg cert, or something to do with the FIN?

 

[K-2]

My registration certificate says Make: Bushmaster, Model: XM15E2S.

A search for AR-15 won't show my gun. I agree with the above posters. The only guns that would show up in a search for AR-15 are those that are listed as "AR-15" in the database.

If they have a column in their database listing guns as variants of AR-15 then we would have a more accurate figure, otherwise it means nothing.