Beretta ARX160
A .22 LR rimfire designed to look like its centrefire military parent. The lineage is cosmetic. The regulation read the cosmetics anyway.
Is the Beretta ARX160 banned in Canada? Yes. The Beretta ARX160 is prohibited in Canada. It was named in SOR/2024-248 (December 2024). If you owned one before the deadline, confirm whether it appears on the federal Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program list. The current amnesty for prohibited firearms expires 90 days after the latest Supreme Court appeal termination under SOR/2026-114.
Classification: Prohibited · OIC/SOR: SOR/2024-248 · Ban-Risk: Already Gone · Compensation: Confirm federal list · Amnesty: SCC appeals + 90 days
Verdict
The Beretta ARX160 in .22 LR is a budget rimfire trainer built to look like the centrefire Beretta ARX160 military rifle adopted by the Italian armed forces in 2008. The mechanism is straight blowback; the calibre is the rubric's base; the rifle has none of the operational characteristics of an "assault-style" centrefire. What it has is the silhouette — pistol grip, detachable magazine, military-pattern furniture, threaded muzzle — and the silhouette is what SOR/2024-248 named. The rubric scores it 10/15: top of High by feature-set scoring alone. The OIC made it Already Gone. The entry is the case study for the rubric's feature-set dimension scoring more honestly than any other column in this batch — the SL8 has lineage, the Hellion has policy momentum, the ARX160 has neither, but its appearance carries it the rest of the way.
Tracking a rifle on this list?
The Ban-Risk Index updates as classifications and the federal compensation list change. Get those changes, and the SCC + 90-day amnesty deadline reminders, in The Dispatch.
Lineage
Parents: Beretta ARX160 (Italian military centrefire, never civilian-legal in Canada)
Siblings: ARX100 centrefire civilian (5.56 NATO, prohibited), ARX160 Pistol (prohibited), ARX200 (.308 civilian, prohibited)
Derived: none
Primary sources for this entry
- Canada Gazette — SOR/2024-248 — Canada Gazette. accessed 2024-12-06
- Beretta — ARX160 product page — Manufacturer. accessed 2026-05-27
Safety note: the Ban-Risk Index is editorial estimation, not legal advice or a substitute for current official guidance. The classification field reflects current RCMP FRT status as of the last-scored date. For any transfer, surrender, deactivation, or transport question, consult primary RCMP / Public Safety Canada sources and, where appropriate, a Canadian firearms lawyer.
