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"Prohibited" covers three completely different legal situations in Canada. An OIC-banned rifle, a grandfathered 12(6) handgun, and a legacy automatic have different transfer rules, different deadlines, and different value-recovery paths. Most owners don't know which track they're on — and the wrong assumption can cost real money or create criminal liability.
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 Makes a Firearm "Prohibited" in Canada
Under Criminal Code s.84(1), a firearm becomes prohibited through one of three routes:
By category. Fully automatic firearms, converted automatics, rifles or shotguns cut below minimum barrel or overall length, handguns with barrels ≤105mm, and handguns chambered in .25 or .32 calibre. A pre-war .25 Colt pocket pistol that's been sitting in a drawer since your grandfather died? Prohibited by category. These have been prohibited under the Criminal Code for decades — long before any Order in Council.
By characteristic. Any firearm with muzzle energy exceeding 10,000 joules, or bore diameter exceeding 20mm. Anti-materiel rifles and large-bore destructive devices fall here.
By name. Three Orders in Council have added firearms to the prohibited list by specific make and model: SOR/2020-96 (May 2020 — the original OIC ban, ~1,500 models), SOR/2024-248 (December 2024 expansion), and SOR/2025-86 (2025 wave). These are the firearms tied to the amnesty and the buyback program.
The distinction matters. Not every prohibited firearm is on the October 2026 clock. A full-auto or a .25 calibre handgun registered since 1998 sits in a completely different legal lane than an AR-15 caught by the 2020 OIC. The buyback program applies to the third route — named prohibition by Order in Council. The first two routes have their own rules, their own transfer restrictions, and no amnesty deadline.
Three Kinds of Prohibited — Three Different Legal Paths
This is where most government pages stop being useful. They explain what "prohibited" means but don't sort owners into the right lane. There are three, and they do not share rules.
Track 1: OIC-Prohibited Firearms
Your firearm was legal when you bought it. An Order in Council (SOR/2020-96, SOR/2024-248, or SOR/2025-86) moved it to the prohibited class by name. Think AR-15 variants, Ruger Mini-14s, certain shotguns, and the expanded lists from 2024 and 2025.
This is the track with a hard deadline. The amnesty expires October 30, 2026. After that date, continued possession without a lawful pathway in progress exposes you to criminal liability under the Firearms Act.
You cannot sell an OIC-prohibited firearm to another individual in Canada. Period. Your options are dealer consignment, export, the government buyback (ASFCP), deactivation, or surrender. Full breakdown below.
Track 2: Grandfathered Prohibited Handguns — 12(6)
Your handgun has a barrel length of 105mm or less, or is chambered in .25 or .32 calibre, and it has been continuously registered to you (or transferred through the grandfathering chain) since December 1, 1998. That makes it a Section 12(6) firearm under the Firearms Act.
No amnesty deadline applies here. But the buyer pool shrinks every single year — through death, lapsed registrations, and no new 12(6) licences being issued. A 12(6) handgun can only transfer to another individual who already holds 12(6) authorization, or to a business licensed for 12(6) transfers. Waiting is a value-destroying choice, not a neutral one. See the 12(6) section below, or the full 12(6) guide for the deep dive.
Track 3: Legacy Criminal Code Prohibited
Full-auto firearms. Converted automatics. Cut-down rifles and shotguns below minimum length. Firearms exceeding 10,000J muzzle energy or 20mm bore. These have been prohibited under the Criminal Code since before any OIC — they are the original prohibited class.
No buyback. No amnesty deadline. No ASFCP compensation. Ownership requires a grandfathered prohibited licence (12(2), 12(3), or similar condition), and no new ones are being issued. The buyer pool is the smallest of all three tracks. See the legacy section below.
How to Find Out Which Track You're On
Before anything else — identify your lane. Acting on the wrong track's rules is how people make expensive mistakes.
Check the RCMP Firearms Reference Table (FRT). The FRT lists the current classification of every firearm model in Canada. If your firearm appears on the FRT as prohibited and you can identify the specific regulation (SOR/2020-96, SOR/2024-248, SOR/2025-86), you're on Track 1. The OIC prohibition list guide has the full model-by-model breakdown for all three waves.
Check your registration certificate. If you hold a 12(6) handgun, your registration and licence conditions will reflect that specific grandfathered status.
Contact the Canadian Firearms Program. If your firearm's classification is unclear — especially for older firearms or items that have been reclassified — the CFP can confirm. Call 1-800-731-4000.
Talk to a licensed dealer. A dealer with prohibited authorization can verify classification as part of an appraisal. Everything Old offers this — $95+GST/hr, gunsmith costs additional if disassembly is required.
If your firearm is a short-barrel handgun or .25/.32 calibre handgun that's been continuously registered since December 1, 1998: you're likely on the 12(6) track. If it's full-auto, converted auto, or cut below minimum length: legacy track. If it was named in an OIC: Track 1.
What You Can Do With an OIC-Prohibited Firearm Before October 30, 2026
This is where the largest group of searchers lands. You own an OIC-affected firearm. You've been sitting on it since 2020. The deadline is six months away. Here are the five lawful options, with the trade-offs stated plainly.
1. Consign Through a Dealer With Prohibited Authorization
The dealer sells on your behalf — to another business, for export, or to an eligible buyer. Compensation depends on what the firearm actually sells for, minus consignment fees. Unlike the buyback, consignment is not a flat rate — it reflects what a buyer will pay.
The catch: the dealer must hold specific prohibited consignment authority on their business licence. Most do not. And prohibited consignment under the amnesty framework is not the same as standard used-gun consignment. The business acts as your agent, not as a purchaser, and the file has to be built around the exact lawful route from day one: export, deactivation, or another permitted downstream transfer.
2. Export Through a Global Affairs Permit
A dealer with prohibited export authorization can sell your firearm internationally. The paperwork chain: Global Affairs Canada export permit, the receiving country's import authorization (US requires ATF Form 6), and carrier logistics coordinated by the dealer. For OIC-affected models with no domestic transfer path, export is the only sale option that exists.
For owners outside the dealer's province, the dealer coordinates the carrier route based on firearm class and destination.
3. Surrender to the ASFCP (Government Buyback)
Fixed-rate compensation based on the firearm model. A mint-condition safe queen gets the same payout as one with a pitted bore and 10,000 rounds through it. The program does not differentiate on condition. Check the ASFCP published schedules for your specific firearm's rate, and confirm directly with the program whether accessories are covered — the published materials are not clear on that point.
Collection logistics can change. Confirm the current buyback path directly with the ASFCP program before relying on it.
The individual declaration window closed March 31, 2026. If you did not submit a declaration by that date, confirm your eligibility directly with the ASFCP program before assuming this option remains open to you.
4. Deactivate to RCMP Standards
You keep the physical object as a display piece. An authorized verifier permanently disables the firearm per RCMP deactivation standards and issues a certification. The deactivation is permanent — there is no reversing it — and it eliminates the firearm's market value as a functional item.
Timeline: 1–4 weeks end-to-end, depending on the firearm and current workload. Cost varies by firearm complexity. Everything Old does not currently perform deactivations in-house — we coordinate the file with a business authorized to perform deactivations and manage the process on your behalf. EO is separately authorized as an RCMP Firearms Verifier for classification and identification.
Deactivation often looks terrible — welds, plugged barrels, the kind of work that makes a collector wince. The trade-off is permanent: once deactivated, the firearm cannot be restored, and its status as a functional item is gone. It makes sense when you want to keep the physical object — a family piece on the wall, a historical item in a display case. It does not make sense if your goal is to recover value through sale or export.
5. Voluntary Surrender to Police
Turn it in at a police station. No compensation. No paperwork complexity. If the firearm has no meaningful market or collector value and you just want it gone, this is the simplest path.
Grandfathered Prohibited Handguns: The 12(6) Situation
Section 12(6) of the Firearms Act created a grandfathered class for prohibited handguns — barrel ≤105mm or chambered in .25/.32 calibre — that were continuously registered to an individual as of December 1, 1998. These handguns follow a completely different set of rules than OIC firearms.
No amnesty deadline. No buyback program. No October 2026 clock.
But the practical window is closing anyway.
A 12(6) handgun can only transfer to another individual who already holds 12(6) authorization on their licence, or to a business with 12(6) transfer authority. No new 12(6) authorizations are being issued. Every year, the eligible buyer pool gets smaller — through death, through lapsed registrations, through people who simply stop renewing. The Bill C-21 handgun freeze blocks individual-to-individual restricted transfers, but 12(6) prohibited handguns follow their own transfer rules under the Firearms Act — they are not frozen the same way.
A 12(6) Walther PPK or a .25 calibre Beretta sitting in your safe right now is a depreciating asset in terms of findable buyers, even if its dollar value holds or increases. Every year you wait, the pool of people who can legally buy it gets smaller.
The complete 12(6) guide covers the transfer mechanics, buyer verification, and how to find remaining 12(6) holders.
Legacy Criminal Code Prohibited Firearms
Fully automatic firearms. Converted automatics. Rifles or shotguns cut below the minimum barrel length (457mm) or overall length (660mm). Firearms exceeding 10,000J muzzle energy or 20mm bore diameter. These are the original prohibited class — Criminal Code s.84(1) categories that have been prohibited since before any OIC was signed.
These firearms are not part of the amnesty. Not eligible for ASFCP compensation. Not subject to the October 2026 deadline.
Ownership requires a grandfathered prohibited licence — 12(2), 12(3), or an equivalent condition. No new licences in these categories are being issued to individuals. If the current holder dies or lets their licence lapse, the firearm cannot be transferred to someone without the matching grandfathered condition.
Options for legacy prohibited firearms:
- Transfer to another holder with the matching grandfathered prohibited licence condition. The buyer pool is even smaller than 12(6) — these licence conditions are rarer.
- Export through a dealer with prohibited export authorization. Live full-auto export is restricted to AFCCL-listed countries (~40 NATO members) with government or government-authorized consignees only — not US civilian dealers or collectors. A cut-receiver parts path to the US is a narrower but real lane for certain historical models.
- Deactivate to RCMP standards. Same process as OIC firearms — permanent, certified, keeps the object.
- Surrender to police. No compensation.
The buyer pool for a registered full-auto in Canada is measured in dozens of grandfathered licence holders, not thousands. Consignment through a dealer with prohibited authorization, parts-kit export for eligible historical models, or deactivation are how these items actually move. Classified-ad listings do not work at this volume or under these licensing rules.
Everything Old handles consignment, export, and deactivation for legacy prohibited firearms under Business Firearms Licence #13848437.
Why Most Dealers Can't Handle Prohibited Firearms
If you've called around trying to sell or consign a prohibited firearm, you already know the answer you keep getting. "We can't handle that." There's a structural reason for it.
A business firearms licence requires specific conditions for each class of firearm and each type of activity. Most dealers hold conditions for non-restricted and restricted firearms — the bread and butter of the retail trade. Prohibited consignment, prohibited import, prohibited export, and 12(6) transfers each require distinct endorsements on the licence. They are not granted automatically and they are not common.
Everything Old holds Business Firearms Licence #13848437 with prohibited authorization including:
- Prohibited firearms consignment (retail sales on behalf of licensed owners)
- Prohibited firearms and devices import
- Prohibited firearms export on consignment
- 12(6) grandfathered handgun transfers
- Film and television supply (all firearm classes including prohibited)
- RCMP Firearms Verifier authorization (for classification and identification)
That combination of conditions is what separates a dealer who can legally handle your prohibited firearm from one who has to turn you away. When law enforcement and customs officials have commented on the rarity of the authorization, that tells you something about how few businesses hold it.
Talk to a Dealer With Prohibited Authorization
You've identified your track. You know your options. Here's the next step.
Have ready: Firearm make and model. Registration certificate. Which prohibited track you're on (OIC, 12(6), or legacy). If you're not sure, that's fine — classification verification is part of the process.
Everything Old handles consignment, export, deactivation, and 12(6) transfers for owners across Canada. Shipping logistics vary by firearm class, service level, and location — EO coordinates the appropriate carrier route for your specific situation.
Contact Everything Old or call the shop directly.