Firearms law from A to Z

Authorization to Transport (ATT)

Also: autorisation de transport. Canada: a permission to move a restricted or prohibited firearm; non-restricted firearms never need one. Since 7 July 2021 only two purposes are automatic conditions of the licence itself — travel to and from an approved club or range in the holder's province of residence, and taking a newly acquired firearm to its storage place. Everything else, such as a move, a gunsmith, an appraisal, a gun show or a border crossing, requires a separate ATT. Whether an ATT is granted, and on what conditions, is decided by the Chief Firearms Officer of the province.

Bound book

Also: acquisition and disposition record, A&D book. United States, federal: the record a federal firearms licensee keeps of firearms received and disposed of. Acquisitions are entered no later than the close of the next business day, dispositions within seven days, with manufacturer, importer, model, serial number, type and caliber or gauge. Type 03 collectors keep one as well, and the record is retained for the life of the license plus 20 years after a firearm leaves. What the record must contain, and whether an electronic format is acceptable, is for the ATF to decide.

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Chief Firearms Officer (CFO)

Also: contrôleur des armes à feu. Canada: the officer in each province and territory who issues, refuses and revokes licences, approves transfers of restricted and prohibited firearms, grants ATTs and ATCs, and approves shooting clubs and ranges. Seven provinces appoint their own CFO (ON, QC, NS, NB, PEI, AB, SK); in the remaining jurisdictions the RCMP provides one. Practice is not uniform across the country — British Columbia and New Brunswick ask for a club confirmation letter where Ontario reportedly does not, which is CFO practice rather than a federal statutory duty. Questions of eligibility and purpose are decided by the CFO of your province.

Concealed carry permit

Also: CCW, CHL, LTC, CPL, CWP. United States, state level: a license to carry a concealed handgun. There is no federal carry license and the name differs from state to state; 29 states are permitless carry and 21 plus DC are shall-issue, with no may-issue state left after NYSRPA v. Bruen (2022). Permits still matter in permitless states because of reciprocity between states. Federal reciprocity is not law — H.R. 38 has sat on the Union Calendar since October 3, 2025 without a floor vote — and whether a permit issues, and what it allows, is decided by the state.

Curio or relic (C&R)

Also: Type 03 FFL, Collector of Curios and Relics. United States, federal: firearms manufactured at least 50 years before the current date (replicas excluded), pieces certified by a museum curator, or firearms deriving a substantial part of their value from being novel, rare, bizarre or connected with a historical figure, period or event. The Type 03 license is the one federal license a private collector sensibly applies for: it allows C&R firearms to be shipped across state lines without a dealer transfer, but permits no dealing, and it brings the bound-book duty with it. Whether a given firearm counts as a curio or relic, and whether the license issues, is for the ATF to decide.

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Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL)

Also: dealer, my FFL. United States, federal: a person or business licensed under the Gun Control Act to deal in, manufacture or import firearms; in everyday use “FFL” also stands for the dealer. A dealer sale runs on ATF Form 4473 plus a NICS background check, and the completed 4473 stays with the dealer — the buyer's only paperwork is the receipt. A transfer to a private buyer across state lines must go through an FFL in the buyer's state of residence, with a long-gun exception for over-the-counter purchases. Licensing and the associated record duties are administered by the ATF.

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Federal registry ban

Also: FOPA 1986. United States, federal: 18 U.S.C. 926(a), added by the Firearm Owners' Protection Act of 1986, forbids establishing any system of registration of firearms, firearm owners or firearm transactions. A private owner therefore has no federal record-keeping duty at all — the Form 4473 sits with the dealer and only NFA items appear in a federal record. Keeping an inventory is voluntary: for yourself, for insurance, for your heirs. Registration duties can still exist under state law, and that is a matter for the state.

Firearm classes (Canada)

Also: non-restricted, restricted, prohibited. Canada: Criminal Code s. 84(1) sorts firearms into non-restricted, restricted and prohibited, and the class governs registration, transport and storage. Non-restricted is the residual class; restricted covers handguns that are not prohibited, non-handguns with a barrel under 470 mm that fire centrefire ammunition semi-automatically, and firearms designed to fire below 660 mm overall when folded or telescoped; prohibited covers handguns with a barrel of 105 mm or less or in .25 or .32 calibre, sawn-off long guns, automatic firearms, and more than 2,500 models listed by regulation since May 2020. The RCMP's Firearms Reference Table is the Canadian authority on the class of a particular model, and the classification can change — appeals 41858 to 41861 on the 2020 prohibition are before the Supreme Court of Canada. Classification follows the regulations and the RCMP, not the owner's own assessment.

Form 1 and Form 4

Also: tax stamp. United States, federal: Form 1 (ATF 5320.1) is the application to make and register an NFA firearm, Form 4 (ATF 5320.4) the application for a tax-paid transfer, which is the usual dealer purchase; Form 5 covers tax-free transfers, including to a lawful heir. The approved form carries the tax stamp, and the term survives the amount: as of August 2026 the making and transfer tax is $0 for suppressors, SBR, SBS and AOW since January 1, 2026, while machine guns and destructive devices remain at $200. A person possessing a registered firearm must retain proof of registration and make it available to an ATF officer on request, which is why many owners carry a copy of the approved form. Approval of any application, and the tax due, are determined by the ATF.

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Grandfathering

Also: Firearms Act s. 12. Canada: certain prohibited firearms may still be held by owners who fall within s. 12 of the Firearms Act — among them automatic firearms continuously registered since 1 January 1978 or 1 October 1992, and handguns with a barrel of 105 mm or less or in .25 or .32 calibre registered before 1 December 1998. The shared condition is an unbroken chain of registration and licensing. If the chain breaks, for instance because a licence is allowed to lapse, the status is lost irretrievably. Whether the conditions are met in an individual case is assessed by the Chief Firearms Officer and the Registrar.

New York recertification

United States, New York: a pistol license under Penal Law 400.00 carries no expiry date of its own but must be recertified — every three years for a carry license and every five years for the others. The license lists each handgun individually, which makes New York a de facto registration state. Missing a recertification date is not the same thing as a license expiring, and the consequences are for New York to determine. This duty is New York law alone; recertification in other states, where it exists at all, is their own law.

NFA item

Also: Title II firearm. United States, federal: the narrow class defined by 26 U.S.C. 5845(a) — short-barreled shotgun, short-barreled rifle, any other weapon, machine gun, silencer and destructive device. These are entered in a federal record, the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, and are the only firearms a private owner in the United States registers with a federal agency; making and transfer run through the ATF form process. The legal position moved repeatedly through 2026, including a district court ruling of August 5, 2026 that is party-specific rather than nationwide. Whether a particular item falls under the NFA is decided by the ATF and the courts.

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Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL)

Also: RPAL, permis de possession et d'acquisition. Canada: the single licence for possessing and acquiring firearms and ammunition — there is no permit per firearm. “RPAL” is colloquial; there is one PAL carrying privileges for non-restricted, restricted (which requires the CRFSC course) and prohibited firearms (grandfathering only). It is valid for five years and expires on the last day of the holder's birth month, with processing realistically taking 45 to 90 days; a licence not renewed in time continues for a further six months during which the holder may only keep the firearms, neither use them nor acquire more. Issue, refusal and revocation are decided by the Chief Firearms Officer of the province.

Registration certificate

Also: certificat d'enregistrement. Canada: every restricted and prohibited firearm needs a registration certificate issued by the Registrar of Firearms, tied to both firearm and owner and reissued on every transfer. Non-restricted firearms are not registered federally — the long-gun registry ended with Bill C-19 in 2012 — but Québec operates its own provincial registry (SIAF) covering them. Before registration a firearm normally has to be verified by an approved verifier, who records its Firearms Reference Table number. Issue of the certificate is a decision of the Registrar.

Residential Security Container (RSC)

Also: UL 1037. United States: a certification level, not a legal requirement. Level I means five minutes against one technician with common hand tools, Level II ten minutes against two technicians with picks and carbide bits, Level III ten minutes with advanced tools. The great majority of containers sold as gun safes in the United States are RSC, and federal law sets no minimum security level whatsoever. California is the exception: certification as a UL RSC by a nationally recognized testing laboratory is one of the two routes to the statutory definition of a gun safe there, and how that applies is for California to determine.

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Secure gun storage or safety device

United States, federal: 18 U.S.C. 922(z) makes it unlawful for a licensed dealer, importer or manufacturer to transfer a handgun to a non-licensee unless the buyer is provided with a secure gun storage or safety device. The duty falls on the dealer, covers handguns only, and is a duty to hand the device over — not a duty on the owner to use it. The statutory definition covers a safe, gun safe, gun case, lock box or other device that can be unlocked only by key, combination or similar means, and it names no minimum standard. Federal law places no storage duty on the owner; any such duty comes from state law, and that is for the state to decide.

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Shooting club records

Canada: approved shooting clubs and ranges must keep records of members and guests — name, address, telephone number, membership number and firearms licence number — and retain them for at least six years. On request from the Chief Firearms Officer a club must be able to give a written description of a member's or guest's participation in target practice or competitions over the past five years. The regulation prescribes no formal attendance book; many clubs keep one anyway so that they can answer. A shooter's own training log is a voluntary record, not a statutory one, and what is asked of the club is the CFO's call.

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Short-barreled rifle (SBR)

Also: SBS, short-barreled shotgun. United States, federal: a rifle with a barrel under 16 inches, or an overall length under 26 inches, is a short-barreled rifle and therefore an NFA item; the shotgun counterpart, the SBS, uses 18 inches and 26 inches. Building one from an existing firearm runs through Form 1 and brings the marking requirement of 27 CFR 479.102 with it. Several states restrict or ban SBR and SBS beyond federal law, and there is no reliable national count of which. Classification of a specific firearm is the ATF's call, and any state restriction is the state's.

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State storage duty

United States, state level: around ten states impose storage duties independent of children — whenever the firearm is unattended in CA, CT, HI, MA, OR and RI, and where certain persons live in the household in CO, IL, NY and VA. Massachusetts requires a locked container or a tamper-resistant mechanical lock unless the firearm is carried by or under the control of the owner; California has required secure storage in a dwelling since January 1, 2026; New York requires a safe storage depository where minors or prohibited persons live in the home. Roughly 26 states additionally have child access prevention laws, in three tiers of severity from “a child could gain access” down to “a minor actually used the firearm”. There is no federal floor here at all — the law of your state governs, and the state decides.

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Storage regulations (SOR/98-209)

Canada: the federal storage rules describe functions rather than container standards — no resistance grades, no certificates, no weight limits. A non-restricted firearm must be unloaded and either fitted with a secure locking device, or have its bolt or bolt carrier removed, or be kept in a locked container or room that cannot readily be broken into (s. 5). A restricted firearm needs a secure locking device and a locked, break-in-resistant container or room together, or else a vault or room built or modified specifically for the safe storage of restricted firearms (s. 6); prohibited firearms follow s. 7, with the removable bolt of an automatic firearm stored in a separate locked room. Ammunition must not be readily accessible, and how the rules apply to a given setup is judged by the Chief Firearms Officer and the courts.

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Suppressor

Also: silencer, sound moderator. United States, federal: a silencer is an NFA item — suppressor is the industry word, silencer the statutory one. Acquisition runs through Form 4 and self-manufacture through Form 1, and eight states plus DC prohibit them. Canada takes the opposite position: a sound moderator is a prohibited device and is not available to private individuals at all. Whether possession is open to you in the United States is decided by the ATF and your state; in Canada the prohibition is federal.

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Transfer (Canada)

Canada: since 18 May 2022 the seller of a non-restricted firearm must have the buyer's licence verified and obtain a reference number from the Registrar. A restricted or prohibited firearm needs the Chief Firearms Officer's approval, and under s. 28 of the Firearms Act the CFO may approve a transfer only for a listed purpose — protection of life or a lawful profession, target practice or competition under an ATT or the auspices of an approved club or range, or a collection meeting the conditions of s. 30. Handguns have been frozen since 21 October 2022: existing owners may keep, shoot at approved ranges, transport, repair, export or surrender them, while private sale, trade and gifting are closed off. Whether a transfer is approved is the CFO's decision.