Canadian Carry Shotguns – Short Barrels are Legal

AmmoLand ^ | January 5, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Canada has some quirky laws about what firearms are easily available and what are not. They are frequently more restrictive than the laws restricting firearms in the United States. However, Canadian gun laws are less restrictive in one area than in the USA. Manually operated shotguns, designed to be fired from the shoulder, are not limited in barrel length. Shotguns that have barrel lengths as short as 9.8 inches are available in Canada for sale as unrestricted firearms. In particular, there is the Tactical Imports SS-211, which has barrels of 9.8 or 12.2 inches in length, with an overall length of 23 inches and a weight of 4.5 lbs. In this YouTube video, the legality of the SS-211 is explored, and a few shots are fired. The shotgun retails for $499 Canadian. The SS-211 offers a way to transport a gun for defense against wild animals on Canadian wilderness trips. The SS-211 is highly restricted in the United States.

The obvious solution for a frugal Canadian would be to cut down the barrels of an existing, inexpensive double or single-barrel shotgun. Unfortunately, Canadian law only allows short barrels that were shortened at the factory!

Canadian law has a category of non-restricted firearms. This class includes any rifle or shotgun that is neither restricted nor prohibited. From the RCMP website:

Most common long guns are non-restricted, but there are exceptions.

Exceptions include prohibited firearms and restricted firearms. Restricted firearms are:

What’s included in this class

• Handguns that are not prohibited firearms
• Firearms that:
  • are not prohibited firearms
  • have a barrel less than 470 mm in length
    
  • are capable of discharging centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner
• Firearms designed or adapted to be fired when reduced to a length of less than 660 mm by folding, telescoping or otherwise

[marktwain]

The RCMP leaves out an important point on its web site. The restriction against barrels less than 470 mm only applies to those which are capable of firing center-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner.

[spetznaz]

Unfortunately, given time Canada’s gun laws will become like those in the UK and Australia. Liberals always opt for blanket restrictions whenever they come to a hard bend. At first I used to think it’s because they want to control things, but I later realized that it was also partially because they are lazy. Why lazy? Because when a shooting happens, it is easier to confiscate firearms from law abiding citizens than it is to (1) tackle the real issues that led to that shooting and/or (2) go after criminals. It is lazy because they know that (most) law abiding citizens will abide to the new regulations, and thus the evening news can show thousands of firearms being destroyed.

Unfortunately, criminals do not adhere to such edicts for one simple reason - they are NOT law abiding citizens. That’s why we call them criminals.

Liberals don’t understand that, they need to control people, and they are too lazy to tackle the real problems.

[bk1000]

If you would hand in your guns because you were following the law then you are an idiot. Nobody wants to go down in a blaze of glory, but if such a time they came to your house for your guns, you have to shoot them. Remember Solzhenitsyn: “And how we burned in the camps…”. There is only one reason they would take away citizen’s arms. Only one.

[T.B. Yoits]

If you would hand in your guns because you were following the law then you are an idiot. Nobody wants to go down in a blaze of glory, but if such a time they came to your house for your guns, you have to shoot them.

No. Solzhenitsyn had it wrong.

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family [to find he'd said his last goodbye to his family]?

Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... [out to the families of The Organs]?

The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

Your objective is to be at their house when they come to yours.

[x]

I gather it’s still possible to literally “saw off” part of the shotgun barrel ...

[marktwain]

I gather it’s still possible to literally “saw off” part of the shotgun barrel ...

Shotgun barrels are typically made of steel, so it is possible to saw them off to a shorter length.

The question is: Is it legal for Canadians to do so?

The prominent Canadian firearms lawyer in the video clearly states it is not legal for an individual to do so, if the barrel is shortened below 470 mm.

Could the lawyer be wrong? Sure. Anyone can be wrong.

However, as a lawyer who dealt with this issue multiple times in the Canadian legal system, he has quite a bit of experience with it.

[ansel12]

I’ve had friends who carried little stubby sawed-off shotguns around their necks at times of potential trouble, they are intimidating when welded by already intimidating men.

[Big Red Badger]

The Canadian Lawyer shoulders the piece and bruised himself...
That’s Funny!
.
But Bear Repellent dispenser
Big Question about That.