Tasers are 'Prohibited Firearms' in Canada

The Truth...Not Tasers blog has broken the news [LINK] into the taser-blogosphere that the taser is actually a 'Prohibited Firearm' in Canada.

The keyword is FIREARM.

This is huge news!!!!


Background: Taser states that "A Taser ...is not classified as firearm...", but the words that follow are important ("... within the United States...").


The Star (28 June 2008) - ...operating under wrong assumption taser not a 'Prohibited Firearm'... [LINK]

Ottawa - Evidence at BC's Taser inquiry may mean police forces across Canada ... could be slapped with Criminal Code charges and wrongful death lawsuits. ...most police agencies in Canada are wrongly operating, likely illegally, under the assumption that the taser is not a "prohibited firearm."

[That's because Taser told them that the taser is 'not a firearm', and they were foolish enough to believe it and not check the laws of Canada.]

In fact, research by Ottawa-based consultant John Kiedrowski indicates taser guns are actually explicitly defined in Canadian criminal law as "prohibited firearms" – a designation that brings much stiffer rules around storage, training, certification and usage. Likewise, any offence with a firearm, such as unauthorized use, would bring harsher mandatory minimum jail penalties.

...Regulations passed in 1998 when the federal Firearms Act came into effect define a "prohibited firearm" as "any firearm capable of discharging a dart or other object carrying an electrical current or substance, including the firearm of the design commonly known as the Taser Public Defender and any variant or modified version of it."

Kiedrowski discovered that provincial policing codes that authorize officers to carry firearms are required to list, by name, the firearms in use. None listed the taser stun gun – theoretically making any discharge of a taser, by definition, "unauthorized."

Instead, tasers are treated as "prohibited weapons" and on the "use of force" spectrum, most police forces in Canada, including the RCMP and the OPP, classified them as "intermediate weapons." "If this is a prohibited firearm, it must be authorized for use," said Ryneveld. ...


Based on my understanding of the background information, it seems very likely that this monstrous screw-up is a direct result of the police forces in Canada being sucked-in by the hubris-soaked dimwits at Taser. Taser is quite proud of the fact that their products are not classified as 'firearms' in the USA. And they have structured their training and their model policies on that assumption. But it appears that the 49th parallel was forgotten. Oops. Not just an Oops by Taser, but an Opps by many of the police forces in Canada.

Let me put it bluntly: Canadian police forces forgot to check the Canadian laws (??!!??). And they had to call in a consultant (bless his heart) to find the basic rules (??!!??).


For immediate action by all Canadian police forces:

1. Immediate moratorium because the rules and paperwork are borked.
2. Cancel all pending purchase-orders for tasers.
3. Consider demanding a refund for those you have.
4. Consider class-action lawsuit against Taser and its Canadian distributor.

You have been hoodwinked and sold a 'bill-of-goods'. As I have previously stated, by the time that the taser issue is fully sorted out in Canada, they will be about as useful to the average police officer as a flame-thrower.

What a mess.

And it reveals clearly the level of professionalism (very low) in the ranks of those Taser-brainwashed police officers and officials that have been promoting tasers from within the Canadian police forces.