Canada bans .22 rifle because it looks similar to an AK-47

[iverglas]

62. customs is a funny thing

As I mentioned, I grew up a two hour drive from the US border. Most people actually live closer than that, I just happened to be in the middle of southwestern Ontario between two Great Lakes -- so actually I was closer than that too, there was just no way of getting from here to there except Detroit ... but no, thinking about it, Port Huron was closer, so I was actually within that one-hour drive that most people are from the border.

When I was a kid, we crossed the border to camp in Florida on winter holiday, picnic in Marysville, Michigan, visit cousins in Dearborn, go away for a weekend somewhere new at a motel with an indoor pool in February -- two or three times a year.

We always packed food, and we had to be careful not to take Florida oranges with us. You can't import Florida oranges into the US.

We can buy codeine over the counter here (behind the counter; the pharmacist will sometimes check that you know about side effects). Not in the US. We had to check our purses and suitcases for any legally acquired, legally carried 222s we might have forgotten about.

Some of those forms probably get sent to anybody wanting import/export approval for anything -- although the fruits/vegetables is a bit odd, since it's only the US that controls that, I thought. We had no problem taking Florida oranges into Canada from the US.

The illegal wood is actually an important thing, if a bit odd here -- but when someone saw a picture of something made of wood, that was really the right thing to do. The only means available to control trafficking in protected species of plants and animals, sometimes, is for developed countries to enforce strict import controls on things entering those countries.

If your item had arrived at the border, and somebody had looked at it and said Eek, this crate is made of a protected species of rare South American rainforest maple, this is a serious offence under the International Convention on Trafficking in Protected Species of Rare South American Trees and the domestic legislation that implements that treaty, the Act to Implement the International Convention on Trafficking in Protected Species of Rare South American Trees, and proceeded to charge you and the museum with that offence -- well, you might have said Wait just a minute, nobody told ME about that stuff.

Kinda like that guy trying to check his gun in NYC.

Now some of them, okay. Import papers into the US, serial number ... but those are requirements of the relevant laws, so the explanation was needed. It might be reasonable for the laws to say something like "if the thing was imported into the US / manufactured after 1900" or some such.

Now, Canada does have some cultural heritage legislation that regulates the export of old stuff, but I guess the US doesn't -- because I'm actually surprised you didn't run into some rigamarole about exporting antiques.