r/canadaguns 3d ago

Misc “Men don’t wear pistols in Canada!”

The photographic, archaeological & written evidence seems to suggest otherwise.

Don‘t even make me delve into the first legislation against firearms ownership which dominion of Canada implemented and where those laws applied and who they were used against.

431 Upvotes

100 comments sorted by

111

u/infinus5 3d ago

Fun fact about the first shot. The miners are guarding their discovery because it was free mill gold on surface. Poplar creek area of the kootaneys BC.

89

u/DonAzuld 2d ago

They should have just stayed inside and phoned the police.

74

u/mechant_papa 2d ago

Leave your gold by the door.

27

u/Borealbound 2d ago

Claim jumpers will fuck your shit up. 

11

u/infinus5 2d ago

i am not 100% sure on when the law changed but not long ago claim jumping was still considered a serious enough offense that people could be shot over it (it was considered a grand theft or similar crime).

9

u/Borealbound 2d ago

Should be treated the same way as horse theft. 

2

u/infinus5 2d ago

in the cariboo rush Judge Begbie (the Hanging Judge) would have put you in the stockade for horse theft and confiscation of claims or possessions for claim jumping.

6

u/War_Hymn 2d ago

Is that a lady with the shotgun?

31

u/DistiIIer 2d ago

My Great-Great-Grandfather sure did. Him and his horse Buck

14

u/Borealbound 2d ago

Can I add this to the collection? My dream is to one day assemble a book of sorts about firearms and specifically handgun usage in the Canadian West. 

14

u/DistiIIer 2d ago

For sure. Ill send you a better quality pic

5

u/Borealbound 2d ago

Now any backstory on Albert? My great great grandfather was a horse rancher who went west to Montana at age 12 when his family were all dying of fever, he eventually set up a ranch near Shaunavon around 1913, there is a family story of him holding some chicken thieves at gunpoint with a shotgun while his wife summoned up the mounted police. 

1

u/escv_69420 1d ago

Buck is a pretty boi! What a proud animal.

28

u/Kvaw 2d ago

Please elaborate on the Paul Harrell screen shot. 

41

u/Borealbound 2d ago

I think it’s from a video on having a defensive frame of mind, I might be wrong, Mr. Harrell was an amazing source of wisdom. He was what you might call a professional.

6

u/GinnAdvent 2d ago

And enjoyer of Pop tarts and meat ribs target.

3

u/Armedfist 2d ago

Don’t forget oranges

24

u/Awwwwolf 3d ago

Is that a girl on the left wide? The Firearm traditions supportsv gender equality too.

9

u/infinus5 2d ago

if your talking about the first shot then yes, the woman and the younger man with her are the claim owners, the armed men with her are her miners / body guards for the claim their working.

20

u/4r4nd0mninj4 2d ago

First wave feminists were very pro gun and self-defence. The KKK and church groups had to put a stop to that in order to protect their congregation from all the self-defence. 😬

10

u/Wolframuranium 2d ago

Gun control was supported to disarm women, The Saturday night special

14

u/gnu_gai 2d ago

Black people too, California's gun control regime got it's start disarming the Black Panthers

9

u/Q-Ball7 In the end, it's taxes all the way down 2d ago

The face of gun control is a scowling old woman (if you want proof, look at who's in Poly's pictures).

The woman most endangered by gun control is much younger.

The feminist complaint that "men think it's all about them" is, humorously, correct in this case: gun control is old woman vs. young woman far more than it ever was man vs. woman. (This is true for most policies old women prefer, in fact; the average anti-sufferagette was an old woman who could reliably lean on her husband to vote her way, and young women gaining the vote would dilute her power.)

1

u/escv_69420 1d ago

A man once said "with a gat it don't matter if you're smaller or bigger"

and women are generally smaller.

4

u/Borealbound 2d ago

My grandmother was a better shot than my grandfather.

6

u/Borealbound 2d ago

Maybe it’s the Rose of Sharon Cassidy from New Vegas? 

24

u/mischling2543 2d ago

Yeah that Heritage Minute annoys me too. Blatant ahistorical propaganda.

8

u/Borealbound 2d ago

I love heritage minutes as much as the next hoser, but yeah 

9

u/mwmwmwmwmmdw 2d ago

because those things where made by people sitting in studios in downtown toronto and montreal with their own idea about canada.

if they made them in 2026 i have a feeling they would take a lot more "creative liberties" when showing interpretations of canadian history

5

u/yummybunnybear 2d ago

A 2026 version would say that Canada was founded by Pierre Elliot Trudeau because John A Macdonald was just the leader of a British Colony.

3

u/Borealbound 2d ago

You are absolutely correct. 

38

u/Zharohk 3d ago

This made me miss Paul :'(

7

u/Borealbound 2d ago

I think about him probably every day 

63

u/hunterofsteelhead 3d ago

If theres any citizens in the world that are responsible and deserving of carrying firearms , its Canadians. Most of the people doing irresponsible things or crimes with firearms dont even look like theyve lived in Canada more than a few years.

28

u/Borealbound 2d ago

I will contest that a little bit, I feel that citizens of every nation on the planet should have the right to carry and own firearms. Canada though is unique compared to many countries because there is a history of firearms ownership and a culture of marksmanship imbued within the national character. 

It would not be a stretch to say that there are people in Canada today who have multiple generations of family going back who owned firearms, perhaps in a continuous generation by generation basis. I was looking at an inventory of one of my ancestors who lived in possessions, he had a trunk of clothes, some hand tools, some cooking implements and a fusil.  

16

u/hunterofsteelhead 2d ago edited 2d ago

My father in law and grandfather in law tell me stories of how they used to ride the schoolbus with a .22 and shoot in the schools basement range. My dad tells me him and his friends used to shoot uzi when they were younger.

3

u/mwmwmwmwmmdw 2d ago

If theres any citizens in the world that are responsible and deserving of carrying firearms , its Canadians.

its always been the case that the places where the innocent most need guns are most restricted on owning them. even in the US a lot of cities with higher crime rates are in places that banned concealed carry for the law abiding entirely and have done all in their power to fight the supreme court when they said they cant do that

-13

u/Cb1receptor 2d ago

Imagine how many times people would leave their pistols in the loo at timmies. It would be a bad look. These fuckin guys who don't do up their pants would be dropping their shit everywhere. Right now we treat them with reverence because they're dangerous. We use them with purpose and keep other people safe from accessing them. The worst case scenarios are all over US news. Do you want that level of peril around here?

10

u/hunterofsteelhead 2d ago

Cops already leave their guns lol canadians and americans have very different cultures even in america its like 50 different countries. Florida is nothing like Wisconsin. New York is nothing like texas etc ive lived in both countries and when I see americans having a blast with ar 15s and ak47s carrying handguns to go grocery shopping its something we in the north will never get to experience even though we are so deserving

6

u/Borealbound 2d ago

I’ve lived in both the US and Canada, there are reasons why the US is the way that it is. For what it’s worth, I have never left my edc pistol in the bathroom of any coffee shop or business. I keep everything but my daily carry and a wall musket locked in a cabinet. Now I will say, I think the CFSC is great, the US could benefit from safety courses, perhaps being mandated in school as the likelihood of someone encountering a firearm is high, I think it would be sensible for it to be taught in school considering 2A is a right and not a privilege like in other nations that permit firearms ownership. 

If Canada had the same population as the US it would have as many problems. For what it’s worth, Wyoming has one of the highest levels of firearms ownership in the US coupled with a very low murder rate. Illinois and California have very strict restrictions on firearms ownership and they have high murder rates, cities like Memphis or Atlanta have high murder rates while in permissive states with constitutional carry, but again, there are things pertaining to the population levels, community cohesion and social and economic factors that affect crime more than the mere presence of firearms.

-7

u/Claus-Buchi 2d ago

No reason to engage lol, they are day dreaming about a world long gone lol

3

u/Borealbound 2d ago

I am a machinist, making guns disappear could only be accomplished by ending humanity.

2

u/Cb1receptor 2d ago

I didn’t say anything about making guns disappear. I just don’t think it would be good for us to have just anyone able to carry firearms. Imagine all the people that make you want to carry being armed as well.

1

u/hunterofsteelhead 2d ago

Those people are already carrying and you arent. Youd be surprised who is carrying and what they have.

0

u/Cb1receptor 2d ago

They aren’t. It’s not easy concealing a full size frame. Most people who have the fear will carry 9+ and we don’t see compact frames when the police do their perp galleries. I am aware there are lots of stingers in Canada. It’s not Canadian to walk around all scared trying to hide a gun in your pants. That’s US chicken shit behaviour.

2

u/hunterofsteelhead 2d ago

Its very easy concealing a full size frame in a country where you can wear oversized hoodies and jackets for most of the year. And when I mean carrying im including what people might stash in the garbage can or car in their close proximity. Not everything ends up in a perp gallery most illegal firearms do not. They are seizing a small percentage. If you live in a rough neighborhood you know how accessible illegal firearms are and even young teens have them.

1

u/Borealbound 2d ago

I literally have literally concealed carried a CZ-52 with an inside the waistband holster here in the US. That’s not a small pistol, it’s a full sized service pistol. I know people who have CCW’d full sized 1911’s or Beretta 92’s. It’s not difficult to conceal a handgun on your person. Most Canadians also as a result of living in a place where people typically do not carry don’t look at things like people’s waistlines or if they are carrying a fanny pack, or the newest rage with ATL youth which is to wear skinny jeans, their sisters jacket and stuff their handgun under their arm and hold it in the armpit, so when people look at their waist they see skinny jeans, assume they are not carrying a pistol. 

Truth be told, a lot of criminally minded people do not use holsters, they just stuff it into a waistband, backpack or pocket. I literally have more holsters than pistols. 

2

u/hunterofsteelhead 2d ago

Yea itd probally more rare to find a holster in the streets than a gun lol besides waist bands and hoodies some guys are wearing purse-like things and some shooters are pretty intelligent they live in urban areas so they have protocols with vehicles , license plates , concealing their face. There was even one where the shooter was on camera wiping prints off things immediately after the shooting and then running. 8 years later they never been caught https://youtu.be/qAl-LS5eo1E?si=Q9bLaWYn8jqorTqZ

1

u/Borealbound 2d ago

What’s in the bag, a Mares Leg? 

0

u/Borealbound 2d ago

As opposed to a scenario where the only people who carry firearms are law enforcement officers and criminals? 

2

u/Cb1receptor 2d ago

Ya welcome to Canada.

2

u/Claus-Buchi 2d ago

You can get a permit if you work requires you to carry a firearm, otherwise why would you need to carry a firearm around?

1

u/Borealbound 1d ago

How many bear encounters have you had? How many mountain lion encounters have you had? 

I have probably had about a dozen close calls with bears while living in BC, had one mountain lion encounter, it’s an experience in humility. Also encountered moose thrashing through the bush before as well. 

For the record, I moved to a jurisdiction in the US that requires every household, sans those with felons, the mentally ill or paupers have a firearm and ammunition, the crime rate here is negligible. Like one homicide every ten years in a metro region that has above average levels of homicide. One thing about carrying a firearm is it makes you very conscious of the interactions you have with others, makes you more careful because you do not want things to escalate to the point of someone being harmed. I carry a Tanfoglio almost every day or a single action big bore revolver when I am innawoods and hiking. Beats lugging a shotgun or SKS around when you are hiking. 

1

u/Claus-Buchi 2d ago

?

2

u/Borealbound 2d ago

In my line of work, people churn things out on mills and lathes all of the time. You would need to erradicate humans to erradicate firearms because the knowledge of firearms production is too widespread to stop the existence of firearms.

1

u/Claus-Buchi 2d ago

I don’t want to eradicate firearms?

6

u/pukalo_ 2d ago

2

u/Borealbound 2d ago

Ah yes, Pierre Trudeau using a handgun to hunt seals.

5

u/Spider-King-270 2d ago

Olaf Hanson is photo 6 his book is a good read.

6

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

49

u/Sticky_3pk 3d ago

As long as there has been firearms, man has been shooting into piles of dirt and garbage for fun.

4

u/CollectibleHam 2d ago

Shooting paper targets gets so fricking boring after a while, sometimes what's best for the soul is to drive around Edmonton alleyways picking up old appliances and whatnot and then hauling the load out to crown land to turn it into Swiss cheese.

2

u/Borealbound 1d ago

Provided you clean up after yourself that is a worthwhile activity, I would personally use cut off scrap material from the machine shops I have worked at, had a lot of these 1/4 aluminum plates that were about the size of a human cranium from the side from this one particular part I made a lot of, they would not hold up to high powered rifle rounds but a .22 would just dent them. Had lots, gave quite a few to friends of mine. 

4

u/Borealbound 3d ago

Me thinks some sort of critter. 

2

u/mechant_papa 2d ago

Am I the only one to notice they are facing each other? They are only a ricochet away from an ouchie.

5

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Borealbound 2d ago

Cauterizing the wound with a red hot green river knife

2

u/patrix299 2d ago

I think that Sam Steele meant that as a legal distinction with regard to street violence and wild west vigilante justice rather than a jab at the carrying of pistols for personal protection.

2

u/Borealbound 2d ago

If you have read Pierre Burton’s Klondike, there was a legitimate concern about the Soapy Smith gang which operated in Skagway, the funny thing is they seemed more concerned about “illegal gambling equipment” because Smith and his crew had developed many unique ways of completely separating prospectors from their money. The Canadian authorities even set Maxim machine guns up on one or two of the passes(I believe the Chilkoot pass, not sure about White Pass) out of fear of Smith’s gang. Soapy was eventually killed in a shootout on the pier at Skagway. 

2

u/xSidTheKid47 1d ago

Those are revolvers

2

u/Borealbound 1d ago

Yes, and your point? 

1

u/xSidTheKid47 2h ago

"Whoosh" said the joke

2

u/escv_69420 1d ago

I do, and I'm a man in Canada.

5

u/IcySkyDream 3d ago

Please delve, I implore you.

9

u/Borealbound 3d ago

Wikipedia is not a source, however:

“ The Parliament instituted a system of gun control in the  North-West Territories   in 1885 to hinder the   North-West Rebellion . Permission in writing from the territorial government was needed to possess any firearm (other than a smooth-bore shotgun), and also ammunition. Possession of a firearm or ammunition without the necessary permit was an offence, and could lead to the forfeiture of the firearm and ammunition. [13 ] These gun control provisions applied to all of what is now Alberta,   Saskatchewan , parts of   Manitoba , the current Northwest Territories,   Yukon , and   Nunavut .“

10

u/4r4nd0mninj4 2d ago

The government knew what the citizens would do to them if they found out what the government intended to do to them...🤷‍♂️

4

u/Strange-Trade-5063 2d ago

We used to be a proper country

3

u/gnu_gai 2d ago

Unless I'm recalling incorrectly there was like, 30 years between Confederation and the start of gun control

4

u/pubertwalpole 3d ago

Men don't die from Tuberculosis in Canada

4

u/Borealbound 2d ago

The good people of Pond Inlet NU would like a word with you.

5

u/floppy_breasteses 3d ago

Well, they've made it illegal to do so, so it's an odd statement for anyone to make. Someone is just so proud to be different from Americans that it's kind of cringy.

18

u/Saskatchewan-Man sk 2d ago

It was illegal for women to vote or even be considered legal people. Indigenous people couldn't vote even longer afterwards than the women in this country. Being gay was illegal in Canada.

I dont buy the argument that just because something is illegal, that it automatically makes it bad or immoral. The laws of a nation are simply those of the ruling class, nothing more.

7

u/floppy_breasteses 2d ago

I agree. Way too often the law is in conflict with what is right.

6

u/Borealbound 2d ago

Very true fellow Sask man. We are talking about laws made by the same government that threw some of my people in internment camps and threw some of my other people into residential schools. 

0

u/ThrowRA_That_Owl_25 2d ago

You are exceptionally closed-minded, you know that? Being Canadian should never be "not being INSERT NATIONALITY." That is what is really cringe. I often see this way of thinking from people/nations with inferiority complex.

3

u/floppy_breasteses 2d ago

Sorry, how am I close minded? I'm pointing out that attitude in the author, dude.

2

u/ThrowRA_That_Owl_25 2d ago

I see. Perhaps, I misunderstood your response.

3

u/floppy_breasteses 2d ago

No worries. I just meant that the author seems to think being 'not American' is somehow a big flex. I don't have any issue with most Americans, nor with carrying handguns.

2

u/ThrowRA_That_Owl_25 2d ago

Honestly, the OP is somewhat vague on his position, imo. Rather, just some random statements.

-2

u/Otherwise_Rub_9515 2d ago

Now men wear dresses and tampons and Chestfeed.

-4

u/m1_Ping_Enthusiast 2d ago

Dude had to dig through 110 year old photos to find proof

5

u/Borealbound 2d ago

So? Some of our families have been here longer than Canada has been a country?