Two decades of *lawful Canadian firearms ownership* - and a government that keeps moving the line.
Canada's licensed firearms population has grown from 1.95M to 2.4M since 2005. Every major federal restriction since 2019 has landed on the most-vetted civilians in the country. A 21-year look at who owns firearms in Canada, and how they have been treated.
There is no national register of what Canadians own. There is, however, a national register of who is allowed to own. The RCMP's Canadian Firearms Program runs a daily eligibility check against CPIC on every one of the roughly 2.4 million Canadians who hold a PAL or RPAL. That population has grown, year after year, through every major restriction of the last two decades - and the restrictions, almost without exception, have landed on that same population.
What follows is an illustrative twenty-one-year view, calibrated to public RCMP Commissioner of Firearms annual reports (2005-2024). The national total and provincial mix are close approximations; the policy timeline, the buyback cost figures, and the crime-gun source shares are drawn from RCMP, CBSA, Parliamentary Budget Office, and Toronto Police Service public reporting. Scrub through the years. Click a province to drill in.
Numbers first. Policy second.
Sources · editorial note
- RCMP, Canadian Firearms Program, Commissioner of Firearms annual reports, 2005-2024
- Statistics Canada, Table 35-10-0196-01 (firearms licences, PAL/RPAL holders)
- Statistics Canada population estimates, provincial (2005-2024)
- Parliamentary Budget Office, Cost Estimate: Firearms Buyback Program (most recent published estimate)
- Canada Border Services Agency, firearms seizure statistics at land ports of entry (2018-2024)
- Toronto Police Service, Annual Statistical Report, gun-crime provenance data (2022-2024)
- Government of Canada, Firearms Act, associated regulations, and the May 2020 Order-in-Council (SOR/2020-96)
- National Police Federation public statements on the proposed buyback role for RCMP members
- Illustrative figures are calibrated to the public totals above. Policy-effectiveness comparisons use PBO cost estimates against CBSA/RCMP-reported crime-gun provenance shares. All ranking is editorial.
