
The fascists next door
News, Political ·Tuesday March 11, 2008 @ 22:23 EDT (link)
20080311: Applied for concealed carry permit at Duvall police department; $55.25 ("exact change only"); simple form plus fingerprinting. Third time there—first time my driver's license still said Redmond so I had to get it updated, second time (yesterday) I found out they only did concealed carry permits on certain days (Tuesdays and Thursdays). It should arrive in 20 days (legally, they have 30 days; I learned that from the pamphlet the female cop gave me).
Since Sunday (~1900), I've been keeping a log of my Broadstripe (ISP) connection uptime, which I mentioned on the Duvall employees at Microsoft internal email alias, receiving a lot of interest including one guy who's going to take the stats to a council meeting Thursday evening. Stats so far:- 9th, 1 minute down (0.07%)
- 10th, 119 minutes down (8.26%)
- 11th (today, until ~2000), 185 minutes down (12.85%).
I was suddenly curious about how hard it would be to bring a handgun into Canada, and I found A Practical Guide to Canada's Gun Laws for Americans; damn, you guys are fascists. Here's a summary:- Any handgun is a restricted weapon (the only "unrestricted" (that doesn't mean what you think it means) firearms are some shotguns and rifles)!
- All firearms must be unloaded during transport (concealed carry? What's that?) or storage; non-restricted firearms must be locked in the trunk, restricted firearms must also be rendered unable to be fired with a secure locking device and locked in a heavy-duty opaque container
- Want to transport a handgun? That requires a form which takes about two weeks to get. DonÂt even think about trying to get permission to carry.
This particular license is almost impossible to get. It's issued to armored car personnel and occasionally to trappers and other workers in the bush. Authorizations to Carry are unique is that there is no appeal from a refusal of an application for an ATC; "no" means no.
- So, what can you get? The Possession and Acquisition License (PAL), $60 ($80 "restricted"), renewable every five years, and here are the hoops you need to jump through to get it:
- a passport-sized photograph, certified to be of you by some other person
- signed permission of your current "domestic partner" and all previous domestic partners within the past three years (The US just requires that you not have felony or domestic violence convictions, whereas in Canada you can be blocked by the whim of an irrational ex)
- signed permission from two other individuals who are not family members (is this a joke? "Please, Joe, can you sign this so I can get a gun?")
- you must pass the Canadian (Restricted) Firearms Safety Course (you need the Restricted course as well only if you want to be able to possess something more dangerous than a rubber band); each is 12 hour class and an examination, or you can skip the class and "challenge the examination" directly
- said course also has a practical part, which includes the operation of various actions, gun safety (to the point of using a cleaning rod to check that the bore is unobstructed)
- you need to tell them what firearms you intend to possess (while you're in the zone, tell yourself the upcoming winning lottery numbers)
- you'll need to get your local police to do a background check on your and send it to the Canadian authorities
- register each firearm you intend to bring into Canada: $18 is the most recent fee I can find, but it may have gone up since then
Compare and contrast above the requirements for me to get a concealed carry license (which is common to most "shall issue" states; 39/50 states are either "shall issue" or (Alaska and Vermont) "unrestricted"; map of laws by state).