Canadian to USA inheritance and importation question

[carnaby]

I have a buddy in Canada who's father has a gun collection. The son isn't much interested in firearms but has nothing against them. His father would like to see the collection enjoyed and kept together wrather than broken up and sold off. The son said he'd probably just give the whole collection (!) to me. I have no idea what's in the collection, but this whole situation is very cool. I told my buddy I'd be glad to take them off his hands, never sell, and give him any/all he wants back if/when he wants them.

The problems arise that 1. he's in Canada and that sucks already. 2. How does he inherit them and then pass them on to me for importation to USA?

I assume he has to take Canada's stupid firearms exams and get a PAL even though he won't really ever possess, much less use, any of the guns. I also suppose I need an FFL to import them. I presume they're mostly hunting rifles but I really have no idea what they are, and my buddy has no clue.

The part I'm mostly conserned about is the transfer from father to son. I especially don't want to see this collection destroyed or given to the frickin' Canadian government. That would be a disaster. My buddy really has no interest in the collection except to preserve it out of consideration for his father, which is cool.

Any ideas or advice?

 

[Joejojoba111]

I don't get it, does the father know the son is giving them to you? Why waste time going through the son then? Just give the father an all-expense-paid vacation, and he can bring his firearms he owns, for the hunting vacation, and then not take them back...

 

[carnaby]

yeah, something like that might be the way. One major problem with going through the son is the cost. Transfering guns under Canada's registration scheme is draconian in terms of expense and wasted time. This website gives the following outrageous example:

The first appeared in the Toronto Sun recently. A woman's husband died, leaving behind sixteen long guns. She wanted to keep them but had no licence. He had, for some foolish reason, rushed out and registered them soon after C-68 came into effect. When the husband was still alive, the wife could have applied for a POL, claiming ownership of at least one of the guns. If the guns had not been registered when the husband died the wife could then have taken possession of all of them since there would have been no record of ownership and she could have claimed they were all hers. Total cost? $10.

But since hubby was a law-abiding Canadian and did everything the government asked, she could not do this. She had to take the PAL course and test ($120), buy a PAL ($60) and pay to transfer the sixteen guns at $25 per gun ($400). Total cost to get property she was legally entitled to? $580, and all because her husband wanted to be law-abiding.

 

[Joejojoba111]

If anything those taxes are cheap. It seems like a tax, the whole scheme. And as far as 'sin' taxes go, they have a near-vertical demand curve so they usually tax them outrageously.

 

[Preacherman]

The ATF has a special branch dealing with firearms importation - see here for information. If you contact them, they should be able to help you with the necessary forms, etc.

I do know a couple of folks who simply had their Canadian buddies ship them a parcel of odds and ends, which somehow seemed to include a firearm or two - but of course, that's illegal...

 

[jfh]

It can be done--

or, at least, it could be done twenty years ago.

My uncle had his gun collection out in BC at his residence there at the time of his death. I was the executor, and heir to, a couple of these guns (52B sporter built in '34, a new S&W .357, .22LR Banker's Spl, etc.)--and the collection included some C&R guns as well. I believe the total amount was about eighty firearms, and included a Peacemaker with a single-digit serial number.

The heirs of these guns lived here in MN. I was the executor of the Estate, but my other uncle and cousin took up the job of importing them. I had my hands full with the Real Property--essentially a hundred-acre private estate with its own hydroelectric plant.

My cousin was a federal bureaucrat (Forestry Service) and organized the whole thing. Exportation was achieved for all but the sporterized Mausers. The best way to do it was to simply drive out and get them--but the conditions of the export license were such that they had to check in with the RCMP at each stop on the way home--something like that. Once they arrived in MN, they then checked in with their FFL and had the guns officially imported.

I don't remember the importation details, really--but my impression was that were it not for the efforts of my cousin--e.g., a bureaucrat who figured out how to deal with the Canadian bureaucracy--those guns might well have been lost to the bureauracy. So, get your ducks together with the Canadians--the export license was quite a mess, IIRC, and this was not even a commercial issue, just an inheritance.

 

[BeLikeTrey]

Buy some hunting tags for him and his son

have both come down and that way they can enjoy your company and the Father can meet the guardian of his firearms. Also let him know they are safer from those canadian laws here. after the hunt they go back with a lighter load. SC has no re- registration laws some other states do as well