question for FAC holders.
- Thread starter JTF#
- Start date
I was one of those knuckleheads who let their FAC laps. I would have had prohib status...I don't like to talk about it really.
To answer your question, you bought the gun in the same manner as today. Registered restricted guns still needed to be registered. Handguns have been restricted in Canada since like...forever.
To answer your question, you bought the gun in the same manner as today. Registered restricted guns still needed to be registered. Handguns have been restricted in Canada since like...forever.
Bought handgun after showing valid FAC at the store or from another person, in person, or via mail from an ad in a paper like "The Gun Runner" [remember pre Internet days]. If you bought it local you took the receipt to your local police. Some grumpy old guy on the police desk or in the property office, typed out a form on a typewriter [no PC or work processors back then]. The form had a bunch of copies separated by carbon paper. He gave you the yellow copy to take back to the store which you showed them that you had started the regs process. They gave you the handgun.
No transport regs in the early days. No trigger locks. No locked containers. So sometimes they just put it in the factory cardboard box if available or even just a paper bag. You took it back to the police station where the grumpy old guy looked it over to make sure it was what was written on the yellow paper. The yellow paper then served as your "temp registration" until your "green slip" arrived. You then took it home [or in most cases right out to the range to try out]. A few weeks later you got the registration certificated in the mail [from the RCMP in Ottawa] which was printed on green paper, hence the term "green slip". That's my recollection on it. Usually no waiting.
Would sometimes buy a handgun in the am at a store. Try it out at the range around noon after the paper work in & yellow copy in hand. Decided it wasn't for me. Had it back to the store by later in the afternoon & traded for something else. Knew of one long barreled wheelgun in .357 Mag that traded hands 3 times in the same week. No wonder the old guy at the police station that had to pound out the paperwork each time on an old typewriter was "grumpy"....lol.... One downside was they only did regs at the local police station during the weekdays. So, if you bought on a weekend you had to wait until following week to register & legally take possession.
------------
NAA.
Last edited:
Look at handgun
Pay dealer
Take info to police station
Get paperwork from police station, while being abused by clerk who thought she knew what se was doing
Go back to dealer and pick up gun (no trigger lock and my favourite transportation case: a brown paper lunch bag
Go to police station show gun and paperwork, get harassed again by incompetent clerk(s) (thank goodness the number of complaints where stacked high enough to force action against those 2 idiots!!)
Take gun home.
It wasnt all bubble gum and candy back then.
Pay dealer
Take info to police station
Get paperwork from police station, while being abused by clerk who thought she knew what se was doing
Go back to dealer and pick up gun (no trigger lock and my favourite transportation case: a brown paper lunch bag
Go to police station show gun and paperwork, get harassed again by incompetent clerk(s) (thank goodness the number of complaints where stacked high enough to force action against those 2 idiots!!)
Take gun home.
It wasnt all bubble gum and candy back then.
That came quite a bit later. In the early days there was no "gun jail" you got your yellow slip which acted as your temp regs until the green slip came in the mail. You were good to take the handgun home right away.
It was actually a big mouth in the gun community that caused "gun jail". Big mouth pointed out that the yellow slip wasn't actually the regs [which everyone already knew it wasn't but carried on anyway] and that the local CFO's [in BC all peace officer were designated CFO's by the Chief Provincial Firearms Officer for the purposes of restricted registrations] weren't following THE LAW! So, as a result, they started to make people leave the handgun at the police station until the "green slip" was received. Yeah, thanks Mr. Big Mouth - you sure showed them, eh?
------------
NAA.
Prior to the green slip, the registration certificate was a sheet of paper, printed horizontally, with spaces for a number of firearms. Disposition of a gun was recorded on the paper. Usually typed, but occasionally hand written. Once a sheet was full, another would be started.
Instead of an ATT, there was the C-42, a conveyance certificate. It would authorize conveyance of a registered firearm in connection with XYZ club. No restrictions on where the pistol could be fired.
Acquiring a machine gun was the exact same process as acquiring a pistol.
Ironically, it is a smoother process to acquire a handgun now, than it was 50 years ago.
Prior to '78, there was no FAC/personal licence.
Instead of an ATT, there was the C-42, a conveyance certificate. It would authorize conveyance of a registered firearm in connection with XYZ club. No restrictions on where the pistol could be fired.
Acquiring a machine gun was the exact same process as acquiring a pistol.
Ironically, it is a smoother process to acquire a handgun now, than it was 50 years ago.
Prior to '78, there was no FAC/personal licence.
so would you all agree it was harder to get a handgun back then. plus safer because you actually had to talk with the grumpy old police guy?
i mean now i buy a gun online and fill out the order form and they mail it to me like a day later and i have it. plus the handgun course is no different then the PAL.
i like our system better now. ?? what do you think?
i mean now i buy a gun online and fill out the order form and they mail it to me like a day later and i have it. plus the handgun course is no different then the PAL.
i like our system better now. ?? what do you think?
I just remember when I had a custom gun made in Montana, and we would get the guns shipped directly home, as long as we had a transport permit.
I had an incident that CP sorting office decided to hold it and send it to the police station, and I had to go to the sorting station to argue my point. I told them they were breaking a Federal law, as my transport permit allowed it only to be shipped to my home. They were adamant about sending it to the cop shop. I asked for ID's and told them I would report it to the police. Funny as hell, it was delivered to my house the next morning.
I had an incident that CP sorting office decided to hold it and send it to the police station, and I had to go to the sorting station to argue my point. I told them they were breaking a Federal law, as my transport permit allowed it only to be shipped to my home. They were adamant about sending it to the cop shop. I asked for ID's and told them I would report it to the police. Funny as hell, it was delivered to my house the next morning.
The first semi I took to Surrey for inspection was a CZ85, the guy who got stuck on the counter was a "transfer in" former ERT guy from a Fed posting. He loved that gun, the nasty lady behind the counter was disgusted - I had a hard time controlling my laughter - good memories.
Back in the " old days" at most of the better gun show, the police would have a table set up and you got the money and carried the gun , with the buyer over and handed
the gun to the police and they did the paper work and the buyers when home , and I know of a few highway signs that got abused badly out the side window at 60mph.
Years ago , small town show, test fired guns out the back door, police officer commenting on the piss poor shooting, God ,I miss that.
the gun to the police and they did the paper work and the buyers when home , and I know of a few highway signs that got abused badly out the side window at 60mph.
Years ago , small town show, test fired guns out the back door, police officer commenting on the piss poor shooting, God ,I miss that.
This was how I remember the process. The information had better been correct or it was back to the dealer and start all over again. I remember the York Regional firearms officer looking over my FAL and asking why I wanted "one of those" types of rifles. Answered "because I can"!
Still alive
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Rainy mosquito infested part of BC
Ah, the ol' days!
Since there was no Internet back then, the one good thing was you could get your restricted the same day as you would most likely be dealing with a brick and mortar.The clerk or cop would type up your temp registration right in front of you, as long as they weren't busy. Even municipal PDs did it. I remember when I got my first 6" 586 and told the cop my gun was better than his! They had the Model 10s back then!
Since there was no Internet back then, the one good thing was you could get your restricted the same day as you would most likely be dealing with a brick and mortar.The clerk or cop would type up your temp registration right in front of you, as long as they weren't busy. Even municipal PDs did it. I remember when I got my first 6" 586 and told the cop my gun was better than his! They had the Model 10s back then!
I made the nasty lady record all 3 numbers on my FAL reggie - she said "there are 3 numbers, which one is right" I said they all are, so you better get them all. So she did. She was fond of asking "why anyone need this?" in a loud obnoxious voice. Turns out she had ND'd her Model 10 into her leg with the VPD and hated guns from that moment on.
Never had this happen. Always got to take it home.That came quite a bit later. In the early days there was no "gun jail" you got your yellow slip which acted as your temp regs until the green slip came in the mail. You were good to take the handgun home right away.
It was actually a big mouth in the gun community that caused "gun jail". Big mouth pointed out that the yellow slip wasn't actually the regs [which everyone already knew it wasn't but carried on anyway] and that the local CFO's [in BC all peace officer were designated CFO's by the Chief Provincial Firearms Officer for the purposes of restricted registrations] weren't following THE LAW! So, as a result, they started to make people leave the handgun at the police station until the "green slip" was received. Yeah, thanks Mr. Big Mouth - you sure showed them, eh?
------------
NAA.
They were called the firearms registrar back then, and in the smaller communities it was often the OPP. Ours was a small detachment and was about 30 miles away from my favorite gun store Lovett's. If you got to the detachment and they were busy, and the corporal was out on a call, no registration that day, and if you were returning with a gun, you had to leave it with them. The good news was that the cop would often phone and say that if I was going to be around for an hour he would drop it off. He was the guy who told me it was ok to shoot my handguns on my own range provided he didn't get an official complaint (he actually got to fire the first cylinder out of my new Redhawk at my home range). I also remember one time I went to register a gun and got told he was on his way back and had to wait in his office all alone with 2 FN's hanging on the wall in a glass case with a couple of boxes of ammo on the shelf beside them.
It may be easier to buy a particular handgun today than in the past. But getting your FAC was a lot easier back then. Between the courses and paperwork, what are new shooters in for? 6 months? A year? More, before they get their RPAL? Back then it was a few weeks and less intrusion into our personal lives. I guess we were more trustworthy back then.
I applied (1 page application, single sided) on a Monday and picked it up the next day, total cost - $10 plus gas to Cloverdale from Newton.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
In those days, you went to the local police station and got a permit to take the gun from the place of purchase to the police station. At the police station, the gun's particulars were recorded, make, model, barrel length, chambering, etc, you received a temporary registration paper, and your transfer permit to take the gun home within a given time period. More often than not I'd arrived at the police station with the gun stuck in my waist band, looking every bit the upstanding citizen I was, dressed in worn out jeans, scuffed cowboy boots that were worn down at the heal, a moth eaten sweat shirt, and usually I needed a shave and a hair cut. I was always able to take the gun home the same day I purchased it. My permanent green registration paper would arrive in the mail some weeks later.
