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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/RosieQParker on 2024-11-16 17:21:19+00:00.

Obligatory: this happened yesterday, but I guess it started during the COVID lockdown.

Way back in the days of lockdown, I had to renew my firearms license. Here in Canada, they’re called a Possession and Acquisition License (PAL) and they’re super important to keep up to date. You can get into trouble if you let it lapse and own any guns. As a result, they go out of their way to make the process easy and painless. During lockdown when it was difficult or impossible for people to get a license photo taken, they were allowing renewals to carry over the old photo.

I completed the renewal process, and got the identical-looking license with the identical-looking photo. I followed the enclosed instructions: destroy the old one immediately and put the new one in a safe place. The old license went into the shredder, and the new one went into my fire safe.

And there it sat for years. I did target shooting in university, but since then I haven’t had the money to keep up with the hobby. Depending on where you are in this country, firing range memberships can be cartoonishly expensive.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was cleaning out the family garage, and one of the important tasks was to get rid of the rinky dink little rifle that’s been gathering dust (properly stored) in the rafters for years. Lucky for me, the local gun shop had just enough space to take it on consignment. It was a filthy and exhausting day, but I had just enough time to grab my PAL and get to the store before it closed.

We go through the inspection and settle on a price, and then he starts filling out the paperwork, which includes taking down my PAL info. Then, my FU blooms into full flower.

“Uhh, do you have a non-expired PAL?”

So it turns out that I put my brand new license in the shredder, put the old one away, and didn’t notice the mistake for four years.

Lucky for me, the system is pretty well-run. He was able to put the number through the database and see that my license was valid, and even got the correct expiry date. I felt pretty bad about keeping him late, but he reassured me that it was the funniest thing he’d heard all day.

Now I need contact the CFO on Monday, report my license destroyed, and request a replacement. And they’re gonna want to know what happened. So I get to tell the government how stupid I am.

TL;DR: I mixed up my new and expired firearms license, shredded the wrong one, and then didn’t notice for four years.