The Amnesty Owner's Manual

A sourced amnesty hub for prohibited-list layers, compensation lookup, jurisdiction stances, SCC timing, FAQ, and a printable decision tree.

The Amnesty Owner's Manual

Canada's firearms amnesty no longer ends on the former fixed deadline. Public Safety Canada now says the 2020, 2024, and 2025 Amnesty Orders expire 90 days after the Supreme Court of Canada renders its decision, expected next year.

Live working version: Holdover is expanding and verifying the compensation and jurisdiction datasets as new official source material appears. Check the linked primary sources before making any decision with legal or financial consequences.
  1. What's prohibited § Categories ->
  2. What amnesty covers, and what it doesn't § Amnesty ->
  3. Federal compensation - by model, with deltas § Compensation ->
  4. Whether your jurisdiction is collecting § Police map ->
  5. The Supreme Court of Canada's docket § SCC ->
SECTION 01
CATEGORIES OF PROHIBITION

What is prohibited, and by what authority

Three overlapping layers of prohibition apply to Canadian firearms ownership as of 2026. Each was created by different legal mechanisms; each affects different model families. The amnesty covered all three.

LAYER 01

The original 2020 list

On May 1, 2020, Order in Council SOR/2020-96 prohibited approximately 1,500 makes and models of firearms - primarily AR-pattern rifles, AK-pattern rifles, and certain larger-calibre rifles. The list was issued under the Governor in Council's power in s.84(1) of the Criminal Code.

Canada Gazette / Public Safety Canada

LAYER 02

Subsequent OICs and FRT additions

Further Orders in Council in December 2024 (SOR/2024-248) and March 2025 (SOR/2025-86) added another ~500 firearms, including shotguns. The RCMP Firearms Reference Table also reflects classification decisions made at the regulator level. Both routes capture firearms not on the original 2020 schedule.

RCMP FRT / Justice Canada

LAYER 03

Future risk

The Governor in Council retains the power to add firearms to the prohibition list by OIC, without a vote in Parliament. Models adjacent to those already prohibited carry the highest forward risk. Holdover's Ban-Risk Index will score currently-legal Canadian firearms on the probability of future addition.

HOW TO CHECK YOUR SPECIFIC FIREARM IN 60 SECONDS

  1. Read the serial off the firearm. Match to your registration certificate.
  2. Open the RCMP FRT search. Enter the manufacturer and model.
  3. If the result classifies your firearm as Prohibited, the amended amnesty expiry applies to you. Read on.
  4. If the result classifies it as Non-restricted or Restricted, the Ban-Risk Index will give you a forward-risk read.
  5. If the firearm is not in the FRT, email the editor - Holdover tracks unlisted entries for the next index update.
SECTION 02
WHAT THE AMNESTY ORDER ACTUALLY DOES

The amnesty, plainly

Amnesty is not a permission. It is a temporary suspension of liability for possession, granted by Order in Council under section 117.14 of the Criminal Code. Read what it covers, and - more importantly - what it doesn't.

The amnesty Order in Council, first issued in May 2020 and renewed three times since, provides that a licensed PAL or RPAL holder who lawfully possessed a now-prohibited firearm at the moment of the relevant Order is, for the duration of the amnesty window, protected from prosecution for the simple act of continued possession. The protection applies under section 117.14 of the Criminal Code, which authorizes the Governor in Council to grant time-limited amnesties of this kind.

That protection has a clear shape and a clear edge. What amnesty does: it covers possession of the firearm itself, including in storage at your registered address, for the term of the Order. What it does not do, in any version of the Order so far, is change the firearm's classification. The model remains prohibited. The amnesty does not authorize transfer to another individual. It does not authorize sale, including private sale to another licensed Canadian. It does not authorize transport to or use at a shooting range. It does not authorize export.

The Order does permit one narrow category of transport: movement of the firearm for purposes of surrender to the federal collection program, or for transfer to a licensed business holding a Business PAL with prohibited-firearm authorization. Both of those routes carry their own paperwork and their own timing constraints. Both are time-limited to the amnesty window itself.

What happens after the amended amnesty expiry depends entirely on what you did before the clock runs out. Three scenarios; each has its own sourced consequence:

WHAT THE AMENDED EXPIRY ACTUALLY MEANS

If you surrendered before expiry

The firearm is received under the program's chain-of-custody protocol and destroyed. You receive a surrender receipt. Compensation processes against the federal schedule where program funding permits - the published amounts are program intent, not an obligation, and payment is not contractually guaranteed.

If you declared but did not surrender

Declaration in the ASFCP portal is administrative; it is not, on its face, a binding obligation to surrender. Possession after the amended amnesty expires returns to the pre-amnesty Criminal Code framework: possession of a prohibited firearm by an unauthorized person is an indictable offence.

If you never declared

Same outcome at law. Amnesty was the protection; without amnesty, the firearm's prohibited status is the operative fact. Provincial cooperation affects how the law is enforced operationally, not whether it applies.

SECTION 03
FEDERAL COMPENSATION SCHEDULE

What the federal program will pay you

Search your model or browse the full table. The Delta column shows where the federal compensation amount falls relative to typical Canadian MSRP at the time of purchase. Negative numbers are the gap you're being asked to absorb.

Compensation under the federal program is not contractually guaranteed. The published amounts are program intent, not an obligation, and payment depends on program funding, program continuity, and proper completion of the surrender. The federal documentation has been explicit on this; Holdover repeats it because it matters.

SECTION 04
POLICE COOPERATION BY JURISDICTION

Whether your local police are collecting

Provincial governments and municipal services have taken public positions on the federal collection program. Click your province or territory to see the current stance, a sourced quote, and Holdover's synthesis. Updated weekly while collection and the Supreme Court file keep moving.

Map of Canada YT NT NU BC AB SK MB ON QC NB NS PE NL
STANCE Assisting Refusing Mixed Position not stated Outline: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA), Canada_blank_map.svg

MUNICIPAL SERVICES - DECLARED POSITIONS

SECTION 05
SUPREME COURT CHALLENGE

What the SCC is being asked

The Supreme Court of Canada is hearing the consolidated challenge to the prohibition Orders in Council. The docket now controls the amnesty clock: Public Safety Canada says expiry lands 90 days after the Court renders its decision.

SECTION 06
YOUR SITUATION, RESOLVED

The decision tree

Five questions. Your inputs resolve to one recommended step, the rationale, three caveats, and Holdover's note on the path. Your answers live in the URL - share the link to share the summary. Print or PDF the result for your records.

SECTION 07
FREQUENTLY ASKED

Thirteen questions, plainly answered

The questions Holdover gets asked enough times that the answer needs to live on a page. Each one resolves to a primary source. Tap to expand.

Amnesty is automatic for licensed PAL/RPAL holders who lawfully possessed a now-prohibited firearm at the time of the relevant Order in Council. You do not apply; the protection runs to the deadline by operation of the Order. Declaration in the ASFCP portal is a separate, administrative process and does not create the protection.SOURCE / Criminal Code §117.14; Public Safety Canada amnesty OIC
No. The amnesty Order, in every version issued, covers possession only. Range use, target practice, hunting, and training are not authorized. The firearm is, for all functional purposes, in storage at your registered address until you surrender it, transfer it to a Business PAL holder, or have it deactivated.SOURCE / Public Safety Canada amnesty OIC, sec. on authorized uses
Yes - transport for the purpose of surrender to the federal program or transfer to a licensed Business PAL holder is the only category of transport the amnesty authorizes. Move the firearm unloaded, in a locked case, by the most direct route, with the appropriate documentation in hand. Confirm appointment-based intake before transporting.SOURCE / Public Safety Canada ASFCP transport guidance
No. The federal program documentation is explicit that compensation under the ASFCP is not contractually guaranteed. The amounts published on the Canada.ca schedule are the program's stated intent at a given snapshot in time, not a binding obligation. Payment depends on program funding, program continuity, and proper completion of the surrender - and the federal government has reserved the ability to vary the program. Holdover treats this as the single most under-discussed line in the public materials. If certainty matters to your decision, it has to be sourced from the actual federal documentation, not assumed.SOURCE / Public Safety Canada ASFCP program documentation; Canada.ca compensation schedule
No. The amnesty does not authorize private transfer between individual owners. Transfer is permitted only to a licensed business holding a Business PAL with prohibited-firearm authorization. This is one of the most-violated edges of the Order; the legal exposure is real.SOURCE / Public Safety Canada amnesty OIC; RCMP transfer guidance
Export is not authorized under the amnesty for individual owners. Businesses holding the appropriate authorization may export; individuals may not. The Criminal Code and the Export and Import Permits Act both engage; do not attempt this without legal counsel.SOURCE / Export and Import Permits Act; RCMP guidance
Yes - deactivation performed to RCMP specification by an approved gunsmith, with certification retained, converts a firearm into a non-firearm under the Criminal Code. Partial or owner-attempted deactivation does not satisfy the standard. The certification is the legal evidence; without it, possession of a "deactivated" prohibited firearm remains an offence.SOURCE / RCMP CFP deactivation standard
The amnesty Order has provided for estate transfer to Public Safety Canada or to a Business PAL holder. The executor should contact the federal program promptly; the executor's authority is administrative, not a licence to transfer the firearm to a non-PAL family member. After the amended amnesty expires, the same firearm in an estate becomes a more complicated legal matter.SOURCE / Public Safety Canada estate-handling guidance
A licence revocation, if it occurs, applies to the holder's overall PAL/RPAL - which means all firearms covered by that licence are then in an unauthorized-possession posture. Revocation is at the CFO's discretion; a refused surrender by itself does not automatically trigger it, but it materially increases the probability. Consult a lawyer if this is your situation.SOURCE / Firearms Act licence provisions; CFO discretion
The Supreme Court is asked whether the Governor in Council's prohibition power under s.84(1) of the Criminal Code is broad enough to capture the SOR/2020-96 list and the subsequent OICs. The Court is not asked to rule on the wisdom of the prohibitions, only the legal authority for them. A ruling that voids the OICs would not, by itself, restore amnesty or compensation; Parliament's response would still matter.SOURCE / SCC docket, consolidated CCFR / Generoux / Wolverine appeal
Public Safety Canada announced that the Amnesty Orders for the 2020, 2024, and 2025 prohibitions have been extended. The old fixed the former fixed deadline date is no longer the operative expiry; the amended expiry is 90 days after the Supreme Court of Canada renders its decision, which Public Safety says is expected next year.SOURCE / Public Safety Canada June 9, 2026 news release and backgrounder
A province can decline to deploy provincial resources to enforce the federal program - Alberta, Saskatchewan, and others have done so. A province cannot, however, exempt you from the federal Criminal Code; possession of a prohibited firearm by an unauthorized person remains an offence under federal law. The province affects how the law operates on the ground, not whether it applies.SOURCE / Constitution Act §91, federal criminal-law power
The RCMP Canadian Firearms Program is the federal supervising authority for contractor conduct. Document what you observed - dates, location, names if available, photographs of any non-compliant practice - and submit through the CFP complaint channel. Holdover's editor accepts the same documentation if you want a sourced public record alongside the formal complaint.SOURCE / RCMP Canadian Firearms Program contractor compliance
SECTION 08
PRIMARY SOURCE TRAIL

Where every claim on this page resolves to

Every assertion on this page resolves to one of these sources. The full trail is also mirrored at /amnesty-owner-manual/sources/ for citation.

  1. Public Safety Canada - ASFCP program page canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/services/firearms.html
  2. Canada.ca - Compensation schedule canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/services/firearms.html
  3. Justice Canada - SOR/2020-96 and subsequent OICs laws-lois.justice.gc.ca
  4. RCMP - Firearms Reference Table (FRT) search rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/online_en-ligne/index-eng.htm
  5. RCMP - Canadian Firearms Program (CFP) guidance rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/
  6. Canada Gazette - Original SOR/2020-96 publication gazette.gc.ca
  7. CCFR / NFA / CSSA - Joint position statement ccfr.ca
  8. Supreme Court of Canada - Consolidated OIC challenge docket scc-csc.ca
  9. Federal Court of Appeal - 2025 ruling on consolidated challenge decisions.fca-caf.gc.ca
  10. Public Safety Canada - Amnesty Orders Extension canada.ca
  11. Statistics Canada - Population by jurisdiction (2026) statcan.gc.ca
  12. Holdover - Ban-Risk Index holdover.ca/ban-risk/ - live once the index ships
Safety note: the Amnesty Owner's Manual is editorial synthesis from primary government sources, not legal advice. The status of the law may change. For decisions with personal legal consequence, consult a Canadian firearms lawyer and verify against current Public Safety Canada and RCMP guidance before acting.