Solomon Friedman Facebook page (c/o Onagoth)

2015/11/18

Once again, the RCMP gets it wrong.
To be perfectly clear, the RCMP has no authority, under either the Firearms Act or the Criminal Code, to "prohibit" these magazines. This is the RCMP's legal opinion. No more and no less.
More importantly, it is an interpretation of the Regulations that is clearly inconsistent with both the plain meaning and the intention of the Regulations.
It is also inconsistent with the RCMP's previous Bulletin (No. 72) on the subject.
In that Bulletin, the RCMP wrote that: "Magazines designed to contain centrefire cartridges and designed or manufactured for use in a semiautomatic handgun, are limited to 10 cartridges. The capacity is measured by the kind of cartridge the magazine was designed to contain. In some cases the magazine will be capable of containing more than 10 rounds of a different caliber; however that is not relevant in the determination of the maximum permitted capacity."
That reasoning equally applies to semiautomatic centrefire rifles.
Finally, the RCMP has simply invented a new term: "dual-calibre magazines." There is no such concept in the legislation or regulations.
This is just another glaring example of politics and policy trumping legal interpretation at the RCMP.