Little Known and Pointless Canadian 'Automatic Firearms Country Control List' Nonsensically Hampers Canadian Gun Industry Foreign Sales

The latest Liberal government overhaul to the gun laws virtually banned pistols, while the nonsensical banning of other firearms two years ago in a helter-skelter way, based on very little consistency, with more talk of more bans that would include semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, not only has a devastating effect on legal law-abiding Canadian gun owners (and Canadian heritage), it has an effect on the Canadian gun industry in a way most Canadians don't realize.

Canadian-made firearms foreign sales, particularly for defence and security firearms sales, have to deal with a bureaucratic, virtue-signalling, impractical and really stupid 'Automatic Firearms Country Control List' (AFCCL), which was set up in the early 90s. The AFCCL applies to all foreign gun sales. The point of the AFCCL is to restrict the sale of Canadian-made automatic firearms to foreign countries. A country must first be approved to be on the list in order to be allowed to buy automatic firearms from Canada. To have a country approved to be on this list can take up to two years. But get this, the way it works is that civilian gun laws in Canada apply to the AFCCL. Yes, you read that right, what a Canadian civilian can and cannot own applies to the AFCCL. For example, here's what's happening, with the prohibited gun list from over two years ago, this now means that Canadian bolt-action 50 cal rifles cannot be sold to a country and their army or police or security forces not on the "AUTOMATIC FIREARMS" Country Control List, even if they are a friendly non-sanctioned country. Ridiculous. So, the "AUTOMATIC FIREARMS" Country Control List now includes bolt action and semi-automatic rifles-- I know, makes no sense.

Now to add to this, the new October regulations that virtually ban pistols will now have pistols included on the "AUTOMATIC FIREARMS" Country Control List. So, here again, the Canadian industry and manufacturers will be harmed and this, again, makes no sense.

And now here we are with more talk of a ban on shotguns and semi-auto rifles, which again will apply to the "AUTOMATIC FIREARMS" Country Control List for any foreign sales. More harm to the Canadian industry.

Canada is the only country in the world to have such a ridiculous list that would apply to foreign sales. I imagine those that came up with this list must have imagined that automatic firearms are the worst thing any army or security forces could use.

To further show how ridiculous this list is, NATO members who are/were not on the list could not be sold firearms Canadian civilians cannot own. I believe that NATO ally Czech Republic was only recently added to the AFCCL. One NATO ally not on the AFCCL list is Montenegro.

Why would Canadian civilian laws on firearms and what Canadians can and cannot own apply to any foreign gun and arms sales to a government for defence and/or security purposes?! As I told a high-up at the "AUTOMATIC FIREARMS" Country Control List office, "Where is the tank list? Where is the battleship list? Where are the rockets list? Where is the grenades list? Where is the drone list?"

In other words, should there be a Canadian company making grenades (e.g. General Dynamics Canada), they can sell grenades to non-sanctioned countries easily enough but Canadian companies can't sell a bolt-action rifle if the country their selling to is not on the "AUTOMATIC FIREARMS" Country Control List. That makes sense, right?

The AFCCL makes no sense and should be removed completely.

Article was updated on 27 November, 2022.