Question: Snub guns in Canada

J

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I visit here fairly often and notice that there are threads about snub guns. There was one about a 2 1/2" Model 19, there's another about a 2" Smith, and another about a Colt Cobra, which is usually a 2" or 3" barrel.

I thought all handgun barrels had to be 4" to 5" in order for them to be legal and possessed/owned in Canada.

By the way, I'm old enough to remember the good old days. Back in the `50's, my father mailed a shotgun from NY to NS so I could hunt while in college. I had to go to the post office, fill out a Customs form and then turn it back in when I returned to the states. The postal clerk never checked the serial number, make, etc. We just talked about hunting. The college didn't even have a problem with me keeping the gun and ammo in my dorm room. Things sure have changed.

John
 
1995 I think it was when the 106mm barrel length rule came into force. Anyone that owned them could keep them under a grandfathering clause and could buy and sell amongst themselves. Made the market very small and prices are rock bottom.
 
If you owned a 4" or shorter barrel before the prohibition came into effect in 1995, then you can buy and sell these PROHIBS amongst others who are grandfathered as such.
The Canadian Firearms centre extended this so if you bought one before 1998 you would be grandfathered. Then they denied those people prohib status.
There is an ongoing court case for those individuals and someone else might be able to tell you how it's going.
Only law enforcement and the military can import these guns now.
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Hi John - Yeah, some of us are old enough/lucky enough to have been "grandfathered" when they brought in the ridiculous regulations pertaining to the so called 'short barreled ' handguns in this country...:)

2006-01-28_154937_SW3637b.jpg
 
This really pisses me off because I just got a 4" barrel lenghtened to 5" cost a fair penny but it was the only way to get the transfer done. If they get rid of the 12(6) I'm going to get it bobbed back to 4"
 
woodchopper said:
This really pisses me off because I just got a 4" barrel lenghtened to 5" cost a fair penny but it was the only way to get the transfer done. If they get rid of the 12(6) I'm going to get it bobbed back to 4"
Click to expand...

Why bother with that cost? Anyway, if we can import snubbies, the first thing I get is this...

http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?model=617SS&category=Revolver

or

http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?model=500MSS2&category=Revolver
 
Boomer said:
I have developed an ache to get a S&W M-22 Thunder Ranch. We can hope that the prohib class will disappear with the long gun registry.
Click to expand...

If you moan enough you could get it dropped, say to 99mm. Still sucks but a bit more logical, how anyone can argue a S&W model 10 is a Saturday Night Special (whatever the f--- that is) has always been beyond me. Even at 99mm the Glock 19 would still be prohibited though.

Quite a few countries have a 100mm barrel length limit for handguns, Australia has it for revolvers and New Zealand has it as the limit for handguns imported for target shooting (as opposed to collecting, the only other thing you can have a handgun for). Some countries use 120mm, like Denmark, and Australia uses it for semi-automatic pistols, because of some obscure and no longer used (I think) ISSF rule.

A few countries (Germany, Finland for example) use a barrel length limit of 76.2mm (3 inches).

The 105mm limit in Canada simply has no rational basis as far as I can see, it was just an arbitrary limit.

Does anyone even make a 106mm barrel for a J-frame?
 
Some J frames were available with 5 and 6 inch barrels, which would put them over the legal limit. Usually in 22 or 22 mag (although I have seen a 32 with a longer barrel on it as well, but then you fall into the "evil 25 and 32 caliber" pistol category). Mostly, the barrel length limits were a way to prevent police departments from selling thier old 4" revolvers to citizens, nothing panics an anti more then the thought of civvies with "powerful police weapons". - dan
 
Snubbies In Canada

The Canadian government has a real habit of telling us something that isn't true when they explain something.
A brief history about our gun laws.
The FLQ crisis was on in the 70's, the FLQ used some M1 Carbines because they were surplus firearms and they could use large capacity magazines. The Canadian government passed a law that stated that center fire semiautomatics with barrel length less than 18 1/2" was restricted. They didn't come out and tell us the reason.

The shooting up of the Quebec Legislature by a Canadian serviceman, tightened up military storage. This gave a black eye to the Canadian Armed Forces for letting a soldier misuse a machine gun. Covered up and never heard of again.

The Oaka fiasco brought about the prohibiting of assault rifles. The list of assault guns found after the event match up to the guns prohibited by the government. One example found was the Barret 50 cal gun and AK's.
Never came out and said why assault rifles were prohibited, but that was the reason.

The Massacre in Quebec and Oaka also limited high capacity magazines.
The high capacity mag item is blamed on the Montreal Massacre, not Oaka, because they wouldn't want to blame the natives.

The government looked at the number of guns in the 25, 32, and guns with 4" barrels and figured they could eliminate over 500,000 guns in the future if they choked off the sales of prohibs to future shooters and collectors.

If you look at where the high profile firearms problems have been in the past few decades, one province comes to mind.

It has now shifted to the main urban centers like Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal.
That's the way I connect the laws to events in Canada. I don't think I am too far off in my assessment.
 
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