Non-Restricted: Rifles and shotguns. You need a Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL) to acquire one of these. In order to get a PAL, you must take a one day gun safety course, then send in a passport-type picture along with your test results to the RCMP who do a background check on you and if you’re not suspicious they’ll issue you an ID card. With this card you can purchase any ammo or rifle/shotgun you want. Centrefire rifles are limited to a 5 round magazine.
Restricted: Full-framed pistols/shortened rifles/SMGs/scary rifles: You need a Restricted Possession and Acquisition Licence (RPAL) to get one of these. This means you have to take the PAL course and then come back a second day for the RPAL training. Again, you send in a passport-size picture to the RCMP and if you’re not suspicious, they’ll issue you an RPAL card with which you can buy as many full framed pistols/AR-15s you want. Magazine size limited to 10 rds. There is a caveat, though: any guns of this type can only be fired on an approved range and you must apply for an Authorization To Transport (ATT) to transport a restricted weapon to your range. You can get a long term ATT from your house you your range; if you wish you move your gun to any other location, you have to phone the RCMP for a temporary ATT to move it to that location. Getting caught failing to do so results in BIG TROUBLE. Stopping in between your house and the range is also not allowed.
Prohibited: Short-barreled pistols, anything in calibres of .25 to .32, and fully automatic rifles: these are grandfathered. If you owned one when it was legal to do so, then you can possess and buy more of the same class. No new licences for this class will be issued (except for inheritance or collectors or something). I don’t believe these are legal to shoot anywhere.
The thing is, I can order guns on the internet, from Canadian vendors. As an example, Iqaluit just got its own approved range for pistol shooting. So I joined the range, which is required if I want to own pistols. Since I have an RPAL, and now a range membership, I just ordered a GSG-1911 .22 cal pistol and a Norinco M1911A1 .45. They;re coming through the mail from across the country.
Is my understanding correct that you cannot buy a pistol from another state?
And you don’t need licencing/training to buy one? Do you need anything to buy a rifle or a pistol?
You are asking at least 50 different questions depending on state and municipality. Licenses are only required in a few places, like Illinois and Las Vegas. Some states are really lenient some are tough to get a firearm. Some require registration of individual pistols or sometimes long guns. Carrying and other laws, I would direct you to these maps.
Anyone can buy a rifle/shotgun at 18 or a pistol at 21. To order online you need to be a dealer or have it shipped to a dealer, except for antiques, black powder, and air rifles who can be bought by anyone. Certain things like felonies can exclude you from purchase. I think you can buy a long gun no matter what state you’re from, but pistols have to be in-state. You can buy outside pistols if you ship it to a dealer first.
All of this normally requires a background check at purchase. No evidence of training is required except maybe in some places. Training is almost always required if you intent to carry, except in VT, AK, AZ, WY apparently.
So most laws are state, but the feds have some, like those that restrict shipping, fully auto, short barrel, suppressors, etc.
Ranges don’t really have any restrictions, just obey local transport laws e.g. in one state you might need to lock it in the trunk on the way there, others you can just strap it to your hip.
Huh. It seems strange to me that gun laws can be so different state-to-state; having federal gun laws seems so much more efficient.
Of course, Canada has no 2nd amendment equivalent. There is no right to bear arms and so guns are licenced like cars kind of. And although there is no law against defending one’s self with a firearm, the storage/transportation laws kind of preclude that kind of use and self defence is not a valid reason for owning a firearm in Canada.
I can’t directly buy a pistol from another state. But if I do want to buy a pistol from another state, I can have someone in that state with a federal firearms license (FFL) transfer the pistol to someone with an FFL in my state, and then transfer it to me. So if I wanted to buy a pistol from a gun dealer in MD (the next state over) I would have to have him ship the pistol to a gun dealer close to me in PA (which he’ll charge extra for) and then I’d have to get the gun dealer close to me to do the transfer, which he’ll charge a bit for too. So there’s a bunch of extra fees and paperwork involved, and I still have to pass the handgun check in my state to do the final transfer (you can’t use this as a way to get around that check), but it can be done.
Don’t worry, we have plenty of federal gun laws too.
General speaking:
Any kind of repeating or semi-automatic firearm is legal of any caliber, except for those classified as “destructive devices”, ie streetsweepers. The Supreme court recently ruled that the 2nd amendment includes an individual right to own a handgun, so the few jurisdictions, most notably Chicago and Washington DC that banned them do not any more. Private ownership of fully automatic weapons does exist, but many jusisdictions ban them de jur or de facto and only grandfathered weapons are permitted.
Generally speaking there is no licensing or training to purchase or possess firearms, but there is a background check. People who have been committed to a mental institusion, found not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity, have a felony conviction, or a dishonorable discharge from the military may not own firearms.
Concealed carry has become legal in most jurisdictions over the past decade or so, usually requiring classes and range qualification.
California has special restrictions on scary guns and large magazines, otherwise generally there are no special restrictions. A similar federal ban had a sunset clause and was allowed to expire. In my state you merely need to be 21 to buy a scary gun, same as a handgun, not 18 for a conventional looking rifle or shotgun.
Castle Doctrine is becoming a trend in which one may use deady force to defend his/her abode, and does not have a “duty to retreat”. In some jurisdictions the mere act of burglary is enough justification for deadly force even without a perceived threat to the occupants.
You generally cannot order guns through the mail. An exception is made for licensed collectors (of which I am one) for collectable weapons which are otherwise allowable, generally anything more than 50 years old or made for the military of a defunct country.
Even as it’s been getting easier for law abiding people to aquire and use guns, criminals with guns are getting absolutely hammered, so to speak. Florida has the “use a gun and your’re done” law- use a gun in a crime= 10 years, fire a gun in a crime= 20 years, fire and hit someone= 25 to life. Consecutive to whatever time the crime itself gets the criminal. Other states have similar kind of laws adding weapons enhancments. For example in Illnois:
Robbery-3-7 years, probationable
Aggrivated Robbery-4-15 years, probationable
Armed Robbery: 6-30 years, prison becomes manditory
Armed Robbery with a firearm: 21-45 years
Armed Robbery with a firearm that was fired: 26-50 years.
Armed Robbery with a firearm that was fired and hit and seriously injured someone: 36-55 years.
One laywer is amazed at the number of people will try to take someone’s tennis shoes (as opposed to say robbing a bank or an armored car or someplace that has real money) and getting 21 years.
Some states do allow you to buy a gun and cross state lines. Oregon has agreements with the neighboring, contiguous states. I can buy a gun in California, Idaho and Washington and just drive home. Several other states have similar laws.
Gun purchases require a NICS background check prior to recieving the gun, takes only a few minutes, may cost no more than $10, and then you walk right out with it.
No registration, permits, license or training are required for either long guns or handguns.
You do need to get a permit to carry a concealled weapon. It involves taking a one time class. Oregon is a ‘shall issue’ state so unless the local sheriff can show reason why I should not have the permit, I get the permit.
The reason it is good to have different laws in different states is so that honest people can get a gun, in some less conservative states, and walla, we don’t have to resort to buying our firearms from the street, and get robbed and shot on our way to making a purchase that is supposed to protect us from those very people…
In some states ie Texas people have to carry guns to protect them from the vast amount of dangerous snakes, scorpions etc… so they have more lenient gun laws than other states, but in that same regard Texas has a lot stiffer laws on murder than most states, so if you shoot someone in" Self Defense" out there you’d better have proof or a good attorney.
Sort of. Minnesota has a 5 day waiting period for handguns and scary guns. But you can optionally “pre-clear” yourself by getting a “permit to acquire a pistol” which waives it at the time of purchase. Besides saving a trip it’s useful at like a gun show where if you see something you like you can walk out with it, as the dealer might be on the other side of the state and might not even have a storefront.
The so called “gun show loophole” (which applies to any private party sale) waiting periods or background checks don’t apply in most jurisdictions if you buy a gun from someone who isn’t a dealer (licensed on the federal level to sell guns); you simply hand over the cash and take the gun.
In Pennsylvania, we have “instant check” which is done over the phone using your driver’s license number and some other info. There’s no waiting period. You can get a handgun as quickly as you can fill out all of the stupid forms involved (and they are stupid forms - they actually ask things like are you a habitual drug user and are you a person of low character, and a lot of the questions are duplicated between the various stupid forms so you end up writing the same thing over and over).