Do you need a PAL to buy a crossbow. I've heard that you do but on the RCMP web site they say you don't.
Q5. Do the licensing and registration requirements apply to bows?
A5. Crossbows that can be aimed and fired with one hand and crossbows with an overall length of 500 mm or less are prohibited. You cannot lawfully possess or acquire a prohibited crossbow.
You do not need a valid licence or registration certificate to possess any other type of bow, including a crossbow that is longer than 500 mm and that requires the use of both hands. Criminal Code provisions making it an offence to acquire a crossbow without a valid licence were never brought into force.
If you plan to use a bow to hunt, please check provincial hunting regulations for information on hunting licence requirements and restrictions that may apply to the use of bows. For example, some provinces do not allow crossbows for hunting.
Can someone confirm this.
Thanks.
From all my research, including speaking with store sales staff about cross bows, this is the very same information that I have with the exception of the under 500mm restriction. I am guessing it never came up because those I spoke to do not own or sell them.
As for the hunting thing, that is regulated by the individual province, so check your local hunting laws.
edit -
right after posting this, i did a google search about Canadian crossbow laws.
There were no hits pointing to the usual laws on the books, but I did get a hit about Canada closing this so called loop hole.
The link no longer worked, but here is what I got from Googl's cache...
The BBC reports that out neighbors in the Great White North may soon be moving to close a ‘crossbow loophole’ in their arms control laws after a man was shot to death on a busy Toronto street. With a crossbow, of all things.
Crossbows, both there and here, are the subject of relatively little preventative regulation. Many states (and provinces) allow hunting with them, and they’re nearly as efficient deer-killing implements as traditional muzzleloaders. Using one in a crime still nets you a lengthy enhancement to your sentence, but the ATFE has no jurisdiction over them and even most felons can buy, own and shoot them unless they’re on parole. Kind of like the Dukes of Hazzard, but with shoulder stocks.
This laissez faire attitude surprises me on some levels, and not on others. If you’re a person who gets all their information from the movies, you would think crossbows were the preferred weapon of assassins and serial killers, able to kill silently from hundreds of yards off. They’re not, but you wouldn’t know that from their Hollywood rep. They’re ‘weapons’ after all, and we civilized people mustn’t let just anyone have them. Or so the logic goes.
On a realistic level, though, crossbows don’t really deserve much regulation. They’re not concealable, not quick or easy to load, and they only account for a handful of mostly accidental casualties. They’re nearly useless for muggers or spree-killers, and even damned difficult to commit suicide with. Compared to paring knives, they’re almost harmless.
Knowing Canada, however, that will be no reason not to ban them. In typical Canadian fashion, crossbow pistols are already banned (because they are ‘pistols’) despite being nearly useless for anything but the extermination of very slow-moving rodents.
Looking over the history of crossbow crimes in Canada, I’m sure that somebody will call it a crime wave and demand legislative action. Gun control—in all its forms—continues to be a ‘solution’ in search of a problem.
As I mentioned...this site seems to no longer exist, and I could not find anything else about it.
This may not be what you are looking for, but I came across this while looking for bows and I am very impressed by its power (40lbs pull) and flexibility. No matter what happens to your kit, you'll be able to find, or make, some kind of ammo for this thing.
http://www.thepathfinderstore.com/deluxe-pathfinder-pocket-hunter-kit/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIcCRJGYug
This may not be what you are looking for, but I came across this while looking for bows and I am very impressed by its power (40lbs pull) and flexibility. No matter what happens to your kit, you'll be able to find, or make, some kind of ammo for this thing.
http://www.thepathfinderstore.com/deluxe-pathfinder-pocket-hunter-kit/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGIcCRJGYug
I saw that before it looks pretty interesting.
I came across this in the question and answers on the canadian tire web site about the Parker Enforcer 150 Crossbow Package.
do you need a firearms license to own?
by
Anonymous
2 months, 1 week ago
Answer this Question
Answer:
No, anything under 500ft per second doesn't require a Possession Acquisition License PAL
Staff Answer
Expert Answer
by
CanadianTireTeam
- CanadianTireAnswers
2 months ago
No license required for crossbows - yet. It's a bit of a loophole- they really need to be treated with respect.
There was talk of changing the law from 500 fps to delivered energy. Something slower than 500 fps but firing a heavy projectile would need a permit. It never came to anything but it would have made paintball guns controlled as well.