Grandfathering: The Other Side of the Story?

In any discussion of gun bans or firearms reclassification, “grandfathering” is presented as a lesser evil.

It’s imperfect. It’s restrictive. It’s a “compromise” in a one-sided negotiation where lawful firearms owners always lose.

Despite that fact, grandfathering is not without some redeeming values.

Four Possible Types of Grandfathering

Grandfathering Option A: No Use or Transfer Permitted 

• You’re permitted to keep your firearms 
• You cannot use them, sell them or transfer them to anyone else 
• Your firearms are “safe queens”
• Must be kept locked up until you either surrender them to police or pass away
• Police will confiscate them from your estate without compensation

Grandfathering Option B: Limited Use

• Possession and limited use allowed
• Registration required
• Firearms must be used at licensed shooting ranges, regardless of their prior classification
• No private transfers, sale or inheritance permitted
• Police will confiscate them from your estate without compensation

Grandfathering Option C: Full Use in Original Classification

• Firearm may be used for hunting, sport, or other lawful purposes, just as they were before being reclassified as prohibited
• Registration required
• No private transfers, sale or inheritance permitted
• Police will confiscate them from your estate without compensation

Grandfathering Option D: 

• Includes all of the above rights plus intra-class transfers
• Most similar to the model used for 12.6 handguns since the late 1990s
• Enables sustained use and cultural continuity
• Police will confiscate them from your estate without compensation

So What Are the Benefits of Grandfathering?

Even within a flawed framework, there are advantages worth noting:

1. Preservation of Possession
   Retaining possession, even without use (Option A), prevents immediate confiscation and maintains a public record that these firearms exist legally and responsibly. Yes, your guns are worthless. No, you can’t shoot them, but you can still look at them fondly inside your own home.
2. Continued Use (in B, C, and D)
   The ability to use one’s firearm in the field or with limitations at an approved range is perceived as valuable by most gun owners. 
3. Educational and Advocacy Opportunities
   With use still permitted under certain options, firearms remain valuable tools for education. Programs like CSSA’s Parliamentary Day at the Range rely on this access to demystify firearms and firearms ownership for Senators, Members of Parliament, and their staffs.
4. A Strategic Window of Time
   Even the most restrictive grandfathering scheme buys us time to organize, educate, and advocate for better policies. It’s not total surrender. It’s holding ground until reform becomes possible.

No one claims grandfathering is the ideal solution. 

Grandfathering isn’t a gift. It’s not even a compromise most firearm owners would choose.

But when immediate confiscation (with or without compensation) ends all options, grandfathering, particularly under Models C and D, offers gun owners a foothold of hope and a path to continue the fight.

In a policy environment where erosion is constant, even imperfect preservation matters.

We may not love it, but we can use it. And in times like these, using every tool we’re given, even the imperfect ones, is part of the long game of protecting and defending our right to own and use firearms responsibly in this country.