Hi All,
As a Canadian firearm owner, I can answer this questions.
Pistols are not illegal to own at all, you just need to have them properly registered and have the right kind of licence.
We are now required to register EVERY firearm, including rifles and shotguns. There are basically three classes of firearms, non-restricted, restricted and prohibited. Non-restricted are your regular hunting rifles and shotguns, and some semi-autos like the ruger 10/22 and a few others. Restricted are pistols, semi-auto rifles (AR-15s) and other evil rifles. Prohibited are full auto, certain sub-guns and certain other evil rifles (like the Steyr Aug). Some pistols with short barrels or .32 or .25 caliber are prohibited.
For a new shooter, you have to take a hunter safety course before taking a non-restricted firearms course, written and practical test. At the point you APPLY for a non-restricted licence and wait for background checks, etc. Then you can take your restricted firearms course, test and practical and apply for a restricted licence. It took over 6 months to process my paper work.
For prohibited status you had to own prohibs when the law came into effect, otherwise you are shit outta luck. If you have prohib status and die, your kids cannot inherit your firearms, they have to be destroyed. Eventually there will be no one left with prohib status. I know active military people who are in the infantry who cannot own what the shoot in the field!
Other laws are for transport of any restricted or prohibited class firearms, you have to get an authroization to transport. If you want to take it to the range, you need to call and get an ATT to transport it from your house to the range. Or if you want to take it to a gun smith, you need to call to get an ATT for that. We can sometimes get a 1 year ATT for back and forth to a club range.
Some fun AR-15 laws:
5 round limit on all magazines
Can only be shot at a range, not allowed to hunt with it
Even though it is semi-auto, it is restricted while the Garand is not restricted.
Any questions kids?
Dez