well, we do have ''free trade'' -the drug dealers routinely trade BC bud for Handguns-which are freely available in virtually any sleazy bar-but when the legitimate hunter/target shooter wants to pick up a box of shells,or a gun component[barrel, sights etc.]he can't do it-got to get ''export permits''from the US-and with our registered firearms law[which by their own statistics have not saved even ONE life]you can forget about bringing in an actual rifle-that has to go through the official ''gunshop to gunshop '' rigmarole-and a lot of US gunstores won't bother-and you can't blame them for not wanting to do the government paperwork.Even those who do have to charge for it-running the prices up.Its a big hassle-generally not even worth it-and certainly not for a brick of 22 shells[not illegal for me to buy-but illegal for the US seller to knowingly sell if its going out of the US]The H&R ''barrel''program is not available to Canadians-for the same reason-can't ship gun parts across the border
I don't know-the only benefit I can see is to creat jobs for the high priced bean counters -cause it certainly has no tangible benefit to sportsmen-and neither does it deter crime.Like seriously-who in their right mind could say prohibiting me from buying or shipping a single shot H&R barrel or a brick of 22 shells across the border makes anybody's life safer? Even E-bay rules prohibit US sellers shipping gunparts[ie scopes or open sights]to Canadian buyers. I had a US e-bay seller ask me to withdraw my bid for a Williams peep site-he couldn't legally ship it to me.
