Canadian Firearms OIC Index

A plain-English index of key Canadian firearms Orders in Council, SOR amendments, amnesty orders, and current official sources.

Last verified: May 19, 2026

This is a plain-English index of the main federal instruments behind Canada's current firearms classification and amnesty landscape. It is not legal advice, and it is not a firearm-status lookup. If a specific firearm, transfer, transport plan, compensation claim, or legal deadline matters to you, check the current law, official RCMP and Public Safety Canada pages, and qualified advice.

The Short Version

When Canadian firearms owners talk about an "OIC," they are usually talking about a Cabinet decision that led to a registered statutory instrument. The practical trail is usually:

  1. the P.C. number, meaning the Privy Council order number;
  2. the SOR number, meaning the registered statutory order or regulation;
  3. the Canada Gazette record, where the instrument was published;
  4. the Justice Laws consolidation, where the current text is maintained.

The central regulation is SOR/98-462, the Regulations Prescribing Certain Firearms and Other Weapons, Components and Parts of Weapons, Accessories, Cartridge Magazines, Ammunition and Projectiles as Prohibited or Restricted. Justice Laws currently lists it as current to March 17, 2026 and last amended on March 7, 2025.

Core Index

| Date | Citation | What It Does In Plain English | |---|---|---| | September 16, 1998 | SOR/98-462 | The base federal classification regulation. It prescribes firearms and other items as prohibited or restricted. | | July 31, 2015 | SOR/2015-213, P.C. 2015-1177 | Added Part 2.1 treatment for named CZ858 and SAN Swiss Arms firearms and temporarily changed the regulation title to include non-restricted. | | May 1, 2020 | SOR/2020-96, P.C. 2020-298 | The May 2020 prohibition amendment. It added named firearm families and variants, the 20 mm bore and 10,000 Joule criteria, and M16/AR-10/AR-15/M4 upper receivers. | | May 1, 2020 | SOR/2020-97, P.C. 2020-299 | The 2020 amnesty order tied to the May 2020 prohibition amendment. | | December 5, 2024 | SOR/2024-248, P.C. 2024-1279 | The December 2024 prohibition amendment. Canada Gazette describes it as adding 104 families and 324 unique makes and models, including current and future variants. | | December 5, 2024 | SOR/2024-249, P.C. 2024-1280 | The 2024 amnesty order tied to the December 2024 prohibition amendment. | | March 7, 2025 | SOR/2025-86, P.C. 2025-322 | The March 2025 prohibition amendment. Canada Gazette describes it as adding 40 families and 179 unique makes and models, including current and future variants. | | March 7, 2025 | SOR/2025-87, P.C. 2025-323 | The 2025 amnesty order tied to the March 2025 prohibition amendment. |

How To Read The Index

The classification regulation and the amnesty orders do different jobs.

The classification regulation says what is prescribed as prohibited or restricted. The amnesty orders deal with temporary protection from criminal liability while affected owners come into compliance with the law. A compensation program can sit beside those instruments, but compensation rules are not the same thing as classification rules.

That distinction matters. A firearm can be affected by a classification amendment, while the owner's practical options depend on the amnesty order, current Public Safety Canada program rules, licence status, storage rules, transport limits, and the facts of the particular firearm.

What Changed Recently

The recent sequence is the part most readers are usually trying to untangle.

In May 2020, the federal government amended the Classification Regulations through SOR/2020-96. The RCMP summarizes that change as covering nine named types of firearms and their variants, firearms with a bore of 20 mm or greater, firearms capable of discharging a projectile with muzzle energy greater than 10,000 Joules, and upper receivers of M16, AR-10, AR-15, and M4 pattern firearms.

In December 2024, SOR/2024-248 added another large set of entries to the schedule. The Canada Gazette regulatory analysis describes that package as 104 families and 324 unique makes and models, including current and future variants.

In March 2025, SOR/2025-86 added another set of entries after item 200. The Canada Gazette regulatory analysis describes that package as 40 families and 179 unique makes and models, including current and future variants.

The current Public Safety Canada compensation-program page says more than 2,500 makes and models have been banned since May 2020, and says affected businesses and individual owners must safely dispose of or permanently deactivate their assault-style firearms before the amnesty period ends on October 30, 2026, or risk criminal liability for illegal possession.

What This Page Does Not Decide

This page does not decide whether a firearm is prohibited, restricted, non-restricted, grandfathered, eligible for compensation, eligible for deactivation, transferable, transportable, or usable.

For that, the starting points are the current Justice Laws text, the Canada Gazette instrument, the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program, Public Safety Canada program material, and qualified advice. The Firearms Reference Table can also be practically important, but the legal basis comes from the Criminal Code and regulations.

Official Sources

Keep the source trail in one place.

If this page has you checking policy claims, keep the source trail tidy before the next update changes the page.

Use the Holdover Canadian Firearms Policy Source Tracker to record the current Public Safety, RCMP, Canada Gazette, and Justice source pages behind buyback, OIC, classification, compensation, and amnesty claims.

Safety note: the tracker is a worksheet for source hygiene, not legal advice or a substitute for current official guidance.

Get the tracker through The Dispatch

Source-led reference pages for the terms and policy context behind this piece.