One Shot is KAC's official Canadian Distributor
True enough... but Questar is an authorized US dealer and has been exporting KAC firearms to Canada for several years now, with Knights' knowledge and tacit approval.
Before OST your "official Canadian Distributor" was Nicholls and they wouldn't even talk to commercial retailers or end-users about the product line (they considered it a "non-commerial" product line). In fact that was the reason Knights gave to us as to why they wouldn't "export" firearms to us in Canada (because of contractual arrangements with Nicholls), but it was made clear that we could buy them domestically and export them to Canada ourselves... and that's what we've been doing for the past several years now.
This has meant that we have a higher cost base than the "official Canadian Distributor" but we have been quite successful in getting US State Department approval for export to commercial end-users and we've been delivering rifles on time and as promised.
If One Shot does eventually get export approval for complete firearms (not just accessories) then there is no doubt they will be able to offer the product at lower prices than we were able to set, but until they actually get those permits and have product here, available for sale, it's just talk. It will also be interesting to see what restrictions (if any) US State Department puts on their export permits... Flash Hiders, threaded barrels, 7.62 and 5.56 markings and/or chambers and collapsible stocks are all very common "provisos" these days for commercial export permits to Canada. We have often run into this ourselves and that has severely limited the product that can often be brought in.
It is nice to see that KAC finally seems to be taking the Canadian commercial market seriously... with factory support I expect that One Shot will be able to do a better job than we could of offering the product line... expecially if Knights also sets them up as a Canadian Warranty Service Centre.
At the end of the day we're all about seeing that Canadian end-users get access to the products they want... when there was no other alternative Questar made that happen for Knights rifles. If OST can improve that with your "factory" help then everyone benefits and that's a win for everyone.
Respectfully,
Mark
