Tony Bernardo is the executive director of the CSSA.

That’s the question one Canadian Shooting Sports Association member posed this week, and it’s not an easy one to answer.

Whether it’s fire, as in Slave Lake in 2011, Fort McMurray in 2016, and Lytton in 2021, or flooding like High River in 2013, what are a licenced firearms owner’s options when faced with an impending natural disaster?

Let’s make one thing crystal clear.

CSSA cannot and will not counsel you to commit a criminal offence.

CSSA’s advice is to store your firearms safely, according to the Storage, Display, Transportation and Handling of Firearms by Individuals Regulations.[i]

The Firearms Act says you cannot move Restricted firearms without an Authorization to Transport. For details of how each class of firearms must be transported, read the sections on Transportation of Non-Restricted Firearms[ii], Transportation of Restricted Firearms[iii], and Transportation of Prohibited Firearms[iv].

The issue gets more complicated if you own firearms prohibited by the May 1, 2020, Order in Council and the subsequent additions made to that list by the RCMP. Except for very specific situations, you cannot legally transport these firearms.

“[N]o transportation will be permitted...”[v]

The legislation is clear and unambiguous.

Should you choose to move your Restricted and/or Prohibited class firearms during a state of emergency, you open yourself up to the risk of prosecution for a variety of Firearms Act offences, dependent upon the discretion and mercy of the police constable you interact with.

Do I Protect Public Safety or Obey Bureaucratic Rules?

This is a question each individual must answer for themselves based on their beliefs about their responsibilities as a citizen of Canada.

Should you, in the face of a natural disaster, follow bureaucratic rules and regulations designed for the best-case scenario?

Or should you do what you must to ensure your firearms cannot fall into the hands of opportunistic criminals or be seized by opportunistic RCMP members, as in Slave Lake and High River?

These are not easy questions to answer.

Criminals are opportunistic by nature, and we’ve seen too many cases of firearms being stolen in these exact circumstances to say, “That can’t happen.”

Best practices, when it comes to firearms safety, is to ensure they cannot fall into the hands of unauthorized individuals, to use the language of the Firearms Act.

If you choose to obey the letter of the law, secure your firearms to the best of your ability, as mentioned above, and do your best to ensure they cannot be stolen before evacuating.

This is CSSA’s only recommendation, as we cannot counsel our members (or anyone else) to commit an offence.

If you choose to put public safety ahead of legislative and bureaucratic dictates, ensure you abide by all applicable transportation regulations (minus the Authorization to Transport that you don’t have time to apply for or receive) and transport your firearms to a safe temporary destination.

Upon arriving and securely storing your firearms at this temporary destination, call the Canadian Firearms Program (CFP) and let them know that, due to the emergency situation faced by you and your community, you chose to protect public safety by refusing to leave firearms in an abandoned residence when you evacuated.

Ask the CFP to make note of your new firearms storage location. Assure them you will apply for the appropriate authorization(s) to transport your firearms home, should you have a home survive the natural disaster that forced you to evacuate.

There is a strong argument that your actions are about protecting public safety. Leaving your guns unattended in that emergency situation is simply unsafe.

People are more important than rules.

That is a time-honoured maxim the world over.

Tony Bernardo is the executive director of the CSSA.

Sources:

[i] https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-98-209/index.html

[ii] https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-98-209/page-1.html#h-1019997

[iii] https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-98-209/page-1.html#h-1020008

[iv] https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-98-209/page-1.html#h-1020016

[v] https://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2020/2020-05-01-x3/html/sor-dors96-eng.html

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