Realistically though, if you're not a f***ing moron and don't have a criminal record, it's not hard to get your PAL and the ability to have long-guns. It's a day-course.
The RPAL is a bit more work and more restrictions in terms of transport etc, but it's not necessary for most people that would just want to go hunting or target shooting (except target shoots with handguns).
IMO - as somebody who has a PAL - the rules around responsible ownership in Canada are pretty reasonable. Some of the recent stuff over particular firearms is dumb especially with the lacklustre enforcement against trafficking etc, but stuff around safe storage and use 100% makes sense to me whereas the "public carry" stuff in the US is kinda horrifying to me.
I didn't really get the allure of it TBH. For most home-based nerds a simple Wireguard host (or OpnSense, OpenWRT etc running such) should be fine, and there are better options for commercial from better-known vendors in the network security space