Gun Buyback Program Canada: What Owners Must Do Before October 2026

Two Dates, Two Tracks: Where You Stand After March 31

The ASFCP covers firearms prohibited by Order in Council — SOR/2020-96 (May 2020), SOR/2024-248 (December 2024), and the March 2025 expansion. More than 2,500 makes and models are on the list. Not just AR-15 variants — the list includes a range of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that many owners do not think of as "assault-style." If yours is on the list, the government considers it prohibited and expects you to dispose of it by October 30, 2026.

The individual declaration window ran from January 19 to March 31, 2026. During that period, owners could submit a declaration to receive compensation when the government collects the firearm. That window is closed. Declarations submitted on time are being processed, and collection with compensation is expected from spring through early fall 2026. If you declared on time, you wait for contact. There is nothing else to do right now.

Here is what the program reported: 67,000 firearms declared by 37,869 owners. The government's own estimate was 136,000 affected firearms. Roughly half were never declared.

If you are one of those owners — whether you missed the deadline, chose not to participate, or did not realize your firearm was on the list — the compensation route is likely gone. The legal obligation is not.

Source: Public Safety Canada, ASFCP program updates; canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2026/04/update-on-the-assault-style-firearms-compensation-program.html

Which track are you on?

Three different legal situations get collapsed under "gun buyback" in search results. They are not the same:

• Your firearm is on the ASFCP prohibited list. Read the next three sections — compensation, legal options, and dealer involvement.
• You have a handgun question — transfer freeze, 12(6) grandfathered status, or disposal. That is a different legal regime entirely. Read section 5 and then the dedicated handgun freeze page.
• You are an estate executor dealing with a deceased owner's firearms. Same October 30 deadline, different process. Read section 6.

What Happened to the Buyback Compensation

The ASFCP compensates based on average retail price by make and model. Not condition. Not provenance. Not what you paid. A safe queen AR-15 in the original packaging gets the same cheque as one with 10,000 rounds through it and a scratched-up stock. If you spent $2,500 on a rifle the program values at $1,337, that is what you get. The program does not care what the market says.

The compensation range runs from roughly $150 to over $1,500, depending on the firearm. Lower receivers: flat $550 where the assembled firearm value meets the threshold. Upper receivers and parts? Not eligible for individual compensation. Zero.

Deactivation reimbursement — for owners who declared on time and chose to keep the physical object in deactivated form — is $400 per firearm, or $700 for the larger-bore / higher-energy category. All amounts are final. No negotiation, no appeals process.

For on-time declarants, the process from here is passive: the government contacts you to arrange collection and payment. That is expected to run from spring through early fall 2026.

Source: Public Safety Canada ASFCP compensation tables; canada.ca/en/services/policing/firearms/asfcp/compensation.html

Provincial declaration breakdown

Ontario led with 27,487 declarations. British Columbia: 15,600. Quebec: 9,801. Alberta: 7,334. Manitoba: 2,442. Those five provinces account for the bulk. The other five provinces had lower totals consistent with their firearms ownership rates.

That 67,000 total against a 136,000 estimate means roughly half of affected owners either did not know about the deadline, did not trust the program, or made a deliberate decision not to participate. The government has not announced any plan to reopen individual declarations.

Your Legal Options If You Missed the Declaration Deadline

This is the section that matters most if you are still holding an ASFCP-listed firearm with no declaration on file.

Three lawful routes remain. None of them pay you.

1. Permanent deactivation

A certified deactivation renders the firearm permanently inoperable to RCMP standards. You keep the physical object. You bear the full cost — expect to pay for the deactivation itself plus any shipping and handling. The reimbursement program was part of the ASFCP declaration process; if you did not declare, you are paying out of pocket.

The trade-off is real: deactivation is permanent and irreversible. It often looks terrible — the work involves welding the barrel, disabling the action, and pinning components. A firearm worth $3,000 on the collector market before deactivation is worth a fraction of that after, and you cannot undo it.

That said, you keep it. For some owners, that is the point.

2. Surrender to police without compensation

You can turn in a prohibited firearm to your local police service. No compensation. The firearm is destroyed. This is the simplest option if you want the legal exposure gone and do not care about the money or the object.

Call ahead. Not every detachment handles surrenders the same way, and showing up unannounced with a prohibited firearm creates unnecessary problems for everyone involved.

3. Lawful export

You can export a prohibited firearm out of Canada with proper authorization. This requires a Global Affairs Canada export permit under the Export and Import Permits Act (EIPA), and the destination country must comply with Automatic Firearms Country Control List (AFCCL) restrictions. The specific rules vary by firearm type — a licensed dealer handling the export will know which destination and consignee requirements apply. Processing times for export permits run approximately six months — if you are considering this route, start now.

During the amnesty period, you do not need an Authorization to Transport (ATT) to move an ASFCP-listed firearm to a disposal point. That exception ends October 30.

You cannot sell an ASFCP-listed firearm to another individual in Canada. Period. The only domestic transfer paths are police surrender and deactivation. Export is the only route that potentially preserves the firearm intact and generates revenue — but it goes through a licensed business with the appropriate prohibited-firearm authorization, not through a personal sale.

Source: Public Safety Canada ASFCP FAQ; Firearms Act amnesty provisions; Export and Import Permits Act; Global Affairs Canada export permit requirements

What you cannot do

Sit on it past October 30 and hope nobody notices. The amnesty is the legal basis for your continued possession. When it expires, you are in unauthorized possession of a prohibited firearm. Provincial enforcement postures vary — more on that below — but federal law does not.

How a Licensed Dealer Fits Into This

Public Safety Canada states that a business with the appropriate prohibited-firearm licence conditions may act as agent for export or deactivation. That is the government's own language for the dealer's role.

Everything Old holds a federal business firearms licence authorizing prohibited firearms consignment, restricted and prohibited import, consignment export, and is an RCMP Firearms Verifier for classification and identification. For deactivation, EO coordinates the file with a business authorized to perform deactivations — we do not currently perform the work in-house. That combined authorization is the operational difference between a business that can legally handle your ASFCP-listed firearm and one that cannot.

What that means in practice: if you want to export a prohibited firearm, a properly licensed business can manage the export permit application, arrange compliant shipping, and handle the regulatory paperwork. If you want deactivation, a properly licensed business will coordinate the work with an authorized deactivation business and manage the file for you.

If your firearm was already on consignment with a dealer before the ASFCP, it must be returned to you as the owner. The dealer cannot unilaterally dispose of it through the program.

One thing to be clear about: a dealer acting as export or deactivation agent is not buying your firearm domestically. You cannot sell an ASFCP-listed firearm to a private individual in Canada, and the dealer's role is specifically as agent for export or deactivation — not domestic purchase. If there is value to recover, it comes through export to a jurisdiction where the firearm is legal. That is a longer, more complex process than a standard consignment sale.

Contact Everything Old for questions about export or deactivation of ASFCP-listed firearms.

Source: Public Safety Canada ASFCP FAQ, dealer participation section; EO Business Firearms Licence #13848437

Handguns and the Buyback: Why They're Different Questions

The handgun transfer freeze and the ASFCP buyback are different legal instruments solving different political problems. Google collapses them together. They are not the same.

The handgun transfer freeze took effect October 21, 2022, and was codified permanently under Bill C-21 on December 15, 2023. It blocks new RPAL-to-RPAL handgun transfers for individuals. If you already own a registered handgun, you can still possess and use it. You cannot sell it to another individual.

Disposal options for handguns under the freeze: transfer to an exempt individual (law enforcement, Olympic/Paralympic competitor), transfer to a licensed business or museum, export, deactivation, or police destruction.

12(6), 12(6.1), and 12(7) grandfathered handguns are a third distinct category. These are prohibited handguns tied to specific registration and licence conditions under the Firearms Act. Grandfathering depends on continuous valid licence and registration — if your licence lapses, grandfathering is gone permanently. No reinstatement. The number of 12(6) holders only shrinks over time.

Provincial search modifiers — "gun buyback bc," "gun buyback alberta," "gun buyback ontario" — reflect where people are searching from, not different laws. The handgun freeze and grandfathering rules are federal. Your province does not change the legal framework.

For the full treatment: 12(6) Grandfathered Handguns Complete Guide and Bill C-21 Handgun Freeze: What Owners Must Know.

Source: Bill C-21 (S.C. 2023, c. 32); Firearms Act s. 12(6), 12(6.1), 12(7); RCMP handgun transfer policy

Estate Executors: A Different Process, Same Deadline

If you are settling an estate that includes ASFCP-listed firearms, the October 30, 2026 deadline applies to you — but the process is different from what individual owners face.

Executors may possess estate firearms for a reasonable time while settling the estate without holding a personal firearms licence. That is the legal basis for temporary possession. But the amnesty expiry does not pause for probate, and "reasonable time" is not defined in the statute. The clock is the same.

For ASFCP participation, executors had to use a paper-based declaration process — the online portal was not available to estates. If the deceased did not submit a declaration before March 31, the same three disposal options apply: deactivation, police surrender, or export through a licensed business.

This is a common real-world scenario that almost no government page addresses clearly. The executor often does not know what firearms the estate contains, whether they are on the ASFCP list, or what the disposal obligations are. A licensed dealer can identify the firearms, confirm their classification, and handle the physical disposal logistics.

Full executor guide: Estate Executor Obligations: Firearms.

Source: Firearms Act estate provisions; Public Safety Canada ASFCP FAQ, estate section

Provincial Enforcement: What Your Province Is Actually Doing

Federal law applies everywhere. Provincial cooperation with enforcement does not.

Saskatchewan passed legislation requiring fair-market-value compensation for anyone who seizes a firearm under the federal prohibition. Alberta announced it will not cooperate with federal enforcement of the ASFCP. Multiple other provinces have publicly refused to participate in federal collection [UNVERIFIED — exact count not confirmed against a current primary source].

The Cape Breton pilot — the first real-world test of collection logistics — picked up 22 of roughly 200 targeted firearms. About an 11% participation rate.

What that means: the practical enforcement landscape varies by province. What it does not mean: that the legal obligation changes. Federal criminal law does not require provincial cooperation to apply. An RCMP officer in any province can enforce the Firearms Act directly. Non-cooperation from your provincial government is not a defence against a federal charge.

The owners banking on non-enforcement are making a bet on politics, not law. This page deals in law.

For province-specific detail on buyback alternatives, see the provincial pages: BC | Alberta | Ontario | Saskatchewan | Quebec | Manitoba.

Source: Saskatchewan Firearms Act (provincial); Alberta government public statements on ASFCP non-cooperation; Public Safety Canada Cape Breton pilot reporting

What to Do This Week

Step 1. Confirm whether your firearm is on the ASFCP list. The federal list is at canada.ca/en/services/policing/firearms/asfcp/list. More than 2,500 makes and models. Check the specific model and variant — "AR-15" is not one firearm.

Step 2. If your firearm is ASFCP-listed and you submitted a declaration before March 31, wait for collection contact. The government expects to process accepted declarations from spring through early fall 2026. You do not need to do anything else right now.

Step 3. If you missed the deadline or chose not to declare, pick your disposal path before October 30:

• Deactivation — permanent, at your expense, you keep the object.


• Police surrender — no compensation, firearm destroyed, legal exposure eliminated.


• Export through a licensed business — the only route that preserves the firearm intact. Start now; export permits take approximately six months.

Step 4. If your question is about a handgun or 12(6) grandfathered firearm, that is a different legal regime. Start here: Bill C-21 Handgun Freeze or 12(6) Grandfathered Handguns Guide.

Step 5. If you are an estate executor, start the paper process now. Do not wait for probate to resolve. Estate Executor Obligations: Firearms.

For questions about export or deactivation services for ASFCP-listed firearms, contact Everything Old. Business Firearms Licence #13848437.