OTTAWA — Public Safety Canada says gun owners reported more than 67,000 banned firearms to the federal government as a first step toward receiving compensation in a buyback program.
The tally is about half the number of firearms the federal government expected to be eligible when the program opened in mid-January.
Officials had earmarked almost $250 million in compensation to cover about 136,000 firearms.
Since May 2020, Ottawa has outlawed about 2,500 types of firearms, including the AR-15 and Ruger Mini-14, on the basis they belong only on the battlefield.
Prohibited firearms and devices must be disposed of or deactivated by the end of an amnesty period on Oct. 30, regardless of whether gun owners take part in the compensation program.
Public Safety says owners who do not comply could face criminal sanctions and the loss of their firearm possession and acquisition licence.
The deadline for declaring interest in the program was Tuesday of this week.
Public Safety said Wednesday the program will continue to complete declarations for gun owners who opened a case file but experienced problems, as well as for Canadian Armed Forces and law enforcement members working outside Canada.
Beginning this month, officials will assess declarations submitted by firearms owners, the department said. The program will provide instructions to participants on how to finalize their claims and permanently deactivate their firearms, or to make an appointment to turn them in.
The collection and compensation processes are expected to run from spring through early fall, Public Safety said.
Collection will be undertaken by the RCMP, local police or secure mobile collection units, with details to be provided to individual owners for their specific area.
Quebec supports the federal compensation program but a number of other provinces and territories — including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador — have snubbed the plan.
Gun control advocacy group PolySeSouvient, which pushed for a comprehensive buyback, recently blamed “weak political leadership” for what it called “poor participation” in the federal compensation program.
On Wednesday, PolySeSouvient said in a media statement the number of owners who signed up for the program by the deadline was “disappointing,” though far from catastrophic.
“This is arguably a ‘half-empty, half-full’ situation with respect to the buyback program,” the group said. “Despite pervasive disinformation and daily pleas to refuse to participate from the gun lobby, about half of the estimated number of affected firearms have been registered by their owners.”
The Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights has called the buyback “wasteful, ineffective and divisive.”
The Supreme Court of Canada recently agreed to hear a challenge from the coalition and others opposed to the federal firearms ban.
Lower courts have dismissed appeals of the ban. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree has said the federal government is confident its position will also be accepted by the top court.
The government plans to soon reopen the buyback program to businesses after more than 12,000 guns prohibited in May 2020 were collected in an initial phase between November 2024 and April 2025. The second phase for businesses will include guns that were outlawed by subsequent orders.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2026.
Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
