A Reader writes

LOST AND FOUND... yet another tale of the incivil service...

I'm a fan of your blog, and I've contacted you once or twice before. I wanted to share my gun registry story with you, as I spent about an hour on the phone with them yesterday.

My license expired on August 1st. Six weeks before that I dutifully filled out the paperwork to renew it, got a passport-style photo, etc and mailed it off. Everything was done correctly. I don't have anything fancy either --no prohibited weapons. Just a bunch of hunting rifles and mil-surp .303s picked up after the war and passed down.

And I'm no criminal: at worst I have three speeding tickets over the last twenty years. I passed a CSIS background check to join the military twelve years ago. I've had multiple criminal records checks in the past twenty years because I've worked with children. I'm a good guy.

So throughout September I began to get to get worried that my license hadn't shown up. I finally contacted them yesterday. The surly bitch I dealt with told me my license was approved on the 16th of October. That is, four months after I sent my paperwork in. It should be in the mail sometime this week, she said.

I asked her what the legality of my not having a license was in the intervening months. She told me an amnesty was granted, and even though I didn't have an up to date card, I was okay.

So, what's the point in having a license at all? If I'd gone to Canadian Tire to pick up a box of 22-250, and the clerk had noticed my license was expired, could I have just explained there was an amnesty? Could I do the same thing if a cop pulled me over the way to the range? If I could, what's the point?

Anyway, keep fighting the good fight.

Has anybody out there tested this whole "amnesty" thing? Do the local police departments know about this?