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.
Keep the source trail in one place.
If this piece sent you back to government pages, keep the official links, page dates, and follow-up notes together.
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.
