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Your will says your son gets the handgun. The law says he almost certainly cannot receive it.
Most owners do not find out until the executor opens the safe. By then the options are already narrowing.
Disclaimer: This guide is for informational purposes only. Consult a firearms lawyer for advice specific to your situation. Verify current regulations at canada.ca/firearms. Last updated: April 2026.
What the Handgun Freeze Actually Changed
A national freeze on the sale, purchase, and transfer of handguns between individuals was implemented by regulatory amendments on October 21, 2022. Bill C-21 codified it into permanent law on December 15, 2023. No sunset clause. No scheduled review. No built-in mechanism to revisit the decision.
The practical result: ordinary individual-to-individual handgun transfers are blocked. You can keep the handgun registered in your name. You can still take it to the range. You can still clean it, store it, transport it with the correct ATT. What you cannot do is sell it, gift it, or transfer it to another individual — including family — unless the recipient fits one of two narrow exemptions that almost nobody qualifies for.
Two narrow carve-outs survive for individual transfers: Authorization to Carry holders and qualifying Olympic/Paralympic handgun competitors. Section 12(7) of the Firearms Act also preserves a limited inheritance path for certain pre-1946 prohibited handguns. Outside those exceptions, the private handgun market in Canada is closed.
Licensed businesses can still receive and transfer handguns. That is the one door left open for most owners, and it is the door most of this page walks through.
The freeze is not a confiscation. Nobody is coming to take a registered handgun out of your safe. But ownership without transferability is a different kind of problem — one that surfaces hard when the owner dies, downsizes, emigrates, or simply lets a licence lapse. The handgun does not disappear from the safe. It disappears from the estate plan.
Source: Public Safety Canada; RCMP handgun-transfer guidance, rcmp.ca/en/firearms/what-you-need-know-changes-handgun-transfers; Parliament of Canada, parl.ca/documentviewer/en/44-1/bill/C-21/royal-assent
The Freeze Is Not the Gun Ban — Why the Difference Matters
This is the single most common confusion around the freeze. Dealer pages, forum threads, and even some news coverage conflate the two. They are separate legal instruments doing separate things.
The handgun freeze (Bill C-21) blocks ordinary individual handgun transfers regardless of make or model. Restricted, prohibited — does not matter. If it is a handgun, transfers between private individuals are blocked for most owners.
The OIC prohibition orders (SOR/2020-96, SOR/2024-248, SOR/2025-86) prohibit specific models of assault-style firearms by name. Mostly semi-automatic long guns. The ASFCP buyback applies to OIC-prohibited firearms only.
There is no government compensation program for frozen handguns. The ASFCP does not cover them. If your handgun is not on an OIC list, the buyback is irrelevant to you. That distinction matters because owners keep asking whether they can "turn in" a frozen handgun for compensation. The answer is no — the two programs address different firearms under different legal authorities.
A handgun can be subject to both instruments — some models appear on the OIC prohibition lists. But most restricted handguns are freeze-only. The OIC amnesty expires October 30, 2026. The handgun freeze has no expiry at all.
Source: Public Safety Canada; RCMP; SOR/2020-96, SOR/2024-248, SOR/2025-86
For the full OIC prohibited list, see OIC Prohibition List — Complete Guide. For ASFCP rates, see How Much Does the Gun Buyback Pay?.
Can You Still Buy a Handgun in Canada?
No. Two exceptions:
- Authorization to Carry (ATC) holders — issued for lawful profession or protection of life. Vanishingly rare.
- Olympic or Paralympic handgun discipline competitors — 10m Air Pistol, 25m Pistol, 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, and Paralympic adapted categories. Requires an annual letter from the national governing body to the Chief Firearms Officer. Every year. Miss a year, lose access.
That is the complete list. Not "the main exceptions." The complete list.
Everyone else — RPAL holders, sport shooters, collectors, people who have held a restricted licence for decades — cannot acquire a new handgun in Canada. It does not matter how long you have been licensed or how clean your record is. The freeze does not distinguish between a first-time applicant and someone who has held an RPAL since the 1990s. Licensed businesses may still transfer handguns to other businesses, law enforcement, and individuals who qualify under those two exemptions.
Source: RCMP handgun-transfer guidance; Firearms Act s. 97.1; Public Safety Canada
Your Options If You Already Own a Handgun
Five lawful exits. They are not equal.
1. Transfer to an exempt individual. The narrowest path. The recipient must hold an ATC or be an active Olympic/Paralympic handgun athlete with current governing-body documentation. For most owners, this option does not exist. It is listed first because people ask about it first — and the answer needs to be clear before they waste time on it.
2. Transfer to a licensed business authorized for that class. This is the realistic path for most owners, and the only one that may preserve financial value. A business with the correct licence conditions can receive a restricted or prohibited handgun, hold it in inventory, and transfer it to a qualified buyer. Not every dealer is authorized — the business licence must specifically cover your firearm's class. A dealer who handles non-restricted long guns all day may not be licensed to touch a restricted handgun. Ask before you drive.
3. Lawful export. Requires a permit from Global Affairs Canada and an authorized carrier. Apply early — Global Affairs processing is not fast. The firearm leaves Canada permanently, and you surrender the registration certificate. Carrier and shipping logistics vary by firearm class and destination — confirm the specific route with the receiving dealer or export agent before committing.
4. Permanent deactivation. The firearm is rendered permanently inoperable to RCMP standards. Irreversible. You keep the physical object but not what made it worth collecting. A deactivated Colt 1903 is a paperweight that looks like a Colt 1903. For some owners — people who want to display a family piece — that trade-off is acceptable. For anyone holding a handgun with collector or market value, it is not. Contact a dealer for current deactivation costs specific to your firearm before deciding.
5. Surrender to police. No compensation. The firearm is destroyed. This is not a decision to make by default — it is the option that remains after the other four have been ruled out.
Options 1 through 3 preserve some value. Option 4 preserves the physical object but kills its market value. Option 5 preserves nothing.
Source: RCMP buying/selling guidance; RCMP handgun-transfer guidance; Global Affairs Canada export requirements
For the consignment pathway in detail, see How Firearms Consignment Works. For export, see Cross-Border Export of Prohibited Firearms. For deactivation specs, see RCMP Deactivation Standards.
What Happens to a Handgun in an Estate
This is the section nobody reads until it is too late.
The phone call goes like this: an executor found two registered handguns in the estate. Dad had a Smith & Wesson Model 10 and a Ruger Mark IV. The adult son has his RPAL. Everyone assumed the transfer was straightforward — Dad left them to him in the will, the son is licensed, what could go wrong?
The freeze is what goes wrong.
An executor can possess estate firearms without holding a personal licence — file RCMP Form 6016 with a death certificate or letters of probate. Possession is handled. Transfer is the problem. The executor's options are the same five exits listed above. Transfer to the son who was promised the handgun? Blocked — unless he holds an ATC or competes in Olympic pistol disciplines. An RPAL alone is not enough anymore.
The legislation does not define "reasonable time" for estate settlement involving firearms. The executor cannot hold them indefinitely, but the exact timeline is not codified. What is clear: the executor must dispose of the firearms through one of the five lawful channels, and the longer the estate holds them without a plan, the fewer options remain practical.
Nobody tells families this before they need to know it. By the time the executor calls a dealer, they have already promised the family member they would handle the transfer. That promise cannot be kept under current law.
The one narrow inheritance exception: section 12(7) of the Firearms Act allows certain pre-1946 prohibited handguns to transfer to specified next-of-kin who qualify under the Act. This is a small, specific carve-out — a pre-war Colt or Webley with documented provenance, passing to a qualifying family member. For everything manufactured after 1946, the estate must use one of the five exits.
Source: RCMP estate guidance, rcmp.ca/en/firearms/transfer-firearms-estates; Firearms Act s. 12(7); All About Estates, allaboutestates.ca/firearms-wills-estates-and-the-impact-of-bill-c-21/
For the full estate executor guide, see Estate Firearms — Executor Legal Obligations.
12(6) Grandfathered Handguns: A Shrinking Exception
Section 12(6) covers short-barrelled handguns (105 mm barrel or less) and those chambered in .25 or .32 calibre — think a pre-war Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless in .32 ACP, or a Walther PPK with a short barrel. These are not cheap items on the collector market. They are the handguns people call about when they realize what the freeze means for their collection.
The requirements are absolute: continuous licence and registration since December 1, 1998. One lapse — even an accidental one — permanently destroys 12(6) status. No reinstatement. No appeal. No exceptions. An owner who lets their PAL expire by a single day and renews the next morning has lost their 12(6) standing forever. The firearm does not change, but the legal status attached to the holder is gone.
The freeze plus grandfathering creates a uniquely constrained situation. The pool of eligible 12(6) holders can only shrink. Every lapse, every death, every surrender removes one permanently. Nobody new enters. The market implications are obvious: fewer eligible holders means fewer lawful buyers, which means the transfer-to-business path becomes increasingly important for recovering value.
Transfer to a licensed business authorized for 12(6) is the primary value-preserving path. The only surviving individual transfer pathway is section 12(7) — pre-1946 handguns passing to qualifying next-of-kin.
Source: Firearms Act s. 12(6), laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/F-11.6/section-12.html; RCMP
For the full 12(6) guide, see Complete Guide to 12(6) Grandfathered Prohibited Handguns.
Will the Handgun Freeze Be Reversed?
The freeze is statutory — an amendment to the Firearms Act, not a regulation. Reversing it requires a new Act of Parliament, not just an Order in Council. That is a higher bar than the OIC prohibition orders, which were enacted by cabinet and could theoretically be revoked by cabinet.
No major party has tabled repeal legislation as of April 2026. The legal mechanism for reversal exists. No concrete legislative path is in motion.
The freeze has no built-in expiry and no scheduled review. It does not lapse if Parliament ignores it. It does not weaken over time. It sits in the Firearms Act until someone amends it out — and amending federal legislation requires a bill, three readings, Senate passage, and Royal Assent.
For owners making decisions now — estate planning, consignment, deactivation — the operative question is not whether the freeze might eventually be reversed. It is what happens to the handgun while you wait. Licences lapse. Owners die. Executors face deadlines. The freeze does not pause for any of those events. Planning around the assumption that it will be reversed is a bet, not a strategy.
Source: Firearms Act amendment structure; Public Safety Canada
What to Do Next
If you are planning ahead: review your will and estate plan with the freeze in mind. The handgun your family expects to inherit may not be transferable to them under current law. An estate lawyer who understands firearms law is worth the conversation now — not after probate starts.
If you need to move a handgun now: contact a licensed business authorized for your firearm's class. Not every dealer holds the right licence conditions. Ask before you ship anything.
Everything Old holds Business Firearms Licence #13848437 — authorized for prohibited handgun consignment, 12(6) transfers, and export.
- Appraisals: $95+GST/hr plus gunsmith costs if required
- Deactivation: EO coordinates with a business authorized to perform deactivations — 1–4 week end-to-end turnaround. EO is separately authorized as an RCMP Firearms Verifier for classification work.
- Consignment: Contact with the make, model, calibre, and condition — Andrew will confirm whether consignment makes sense for your specific situation, and be straight about when it does not justify the wait
That authorization is the operational difference between a dealer who can legally handle your firearm and one who cannot.
Contact Everything Old through everythingold.ca.
For a walkthrough of which law applies to your specific firearm, see Firearms Classification Decision Guide.
This guide is for informational purposes only. Consult a firearms lawyer for advice specific to your situation. Verify current regulations at canada.ca/firearms. Last updated: April 2026.