Buying your first handgun, what's the time frame?

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East

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My buddy and I are having a debate. He said when he bought his first handgun, and I'm assuming it's his 1st firearm. I owned rifles before handguns, when I bought my first from a store I waited maybe 4 days before I could take it home. He is telling me a 1st time buyer who hasn't owned any firearms before has to wait 30 days before taking it home. I've checked out the RCMP website for the Indians they mention 30 days but does that pertain to the buying or the application?
 
East said:
My buddy and I are having a debate. He said when he bought his first handgun, and I'm assuming it's his 1st firearm. I owned rifles before handguns, when I bought my first from a store I waited maybe 4 days before I could take it home. He is telling me a 1st time buyer who hasn't owned any firearms before has to wait 30 days before taking it home. I've checked out the RCMP website for the Indians they mention 30 days but does that pertain to the buying or the application?
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Each transfer of a restricted firearm requires the would-be purchaser to provide the reason for the acqusition (from a short list of deemed-acceptable reasons), and the CFO must evaluate the current legitimacy of the status of the would-be purchaser. That is required by law; the CFO must do that, by law.

If the applicant: does NOT hold a valid license (for the firearm in question), or; does NOT hold a current membership in at least one 'approved shooting club' located in that province, or; has NOT stated that the purpose of the acquisition is for "target shooting", then the process will NOT be straightforward at all, and the transfer process might be measured in months, or years.

On the other hand, if the applicant: holds a valid PAL with a 'restricted' endorsement, and; holds a current membership in at least one 'approved shooting club' located in that province, and; states that the purpose of the acquisition is for "target shooting", then the process will be fairly simple for everyone concerned, and the transfer process won't take long at all. The transfer process will probably be measured in days.
 
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When I bought my first restricted firearm online, it actually took almost a month of waiting to get the application cleared. Every other purchase after that however was just a few days. Almost forgot to mention, I'm not Indian but do live in Quebec. Others I know have had the same experience.
 
East,

I'm one of those guys that didn't clue-in and started by getting my PAL first, but didn't go for the extra day course to obtain my RPAL. So I owned a few NRs first and 3 years down the road, I went to get the restricted safety handling crse. My first pistol was acquired as a private sale between a friend and myself. He called the CFO (Alberta here) to get the transfer initiated, I called right after with the number and completed the transfer with the person on the phone. 2 Weeks after, I had the letter authorizing me to bring the pistol home (30 minutes drive, so no biggie). Then of course I waited a little more (another 5-8 days) to get the authorization to bring it to the range.
 
In Ontario, in-store purchases takes between 2-7 days average. My 3 in-store purchases took between 2 days to 9-days. The 9-days was due to a statutory holiday. One private transfer took surprisingly 5 business days.
 
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I've seen it take 5 weeks and I've seen it take less than a day, and get the paperwork via email, which is valid until the paper copy arrives.

I've had them process private sales where the buyer was just handed my phone - and then we got the number and they got an email the next day. Other times it takes ages. I'm never in a rush so I don't much care.
 
A minimum of 1 business day till you can bring it home. The cfo can email you a pdf of the att so you wont need to wait for it in tb mail. And a few weeks waiting for the registration until you can use it at the range.
 
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