Gun licence applications are climbing across the Greater Toronto Area, and I don’t think this is a statistic we should simply scroll past without asking why. Applications have reportedly risen nearly 50 per cent since 2016, while Canada is now approaching 2.5 million licensed firearms owners nationwide. In a country known internationally for having significantly stricter firearms laws than our neighbours to the south, those numbers deserve a closer look.
First, let’s clear up what legal gun ownership actually looks like in Canada because this is not the United States. For a new adult applicant, the standard licence is the Possession and Acquisition Licence, commonly called a PAL. An applicant must generally be at least 18 years old and must successfully complete the Canadian Firearms Safety Course before applying. The course includes both written and practical testing and covers safe handling, ammunition, storage, transportation and the responsibilities that come with firearm ownership. A PAL is generally renewed every five years.
There also isn’t one single type of Canadian firearm owner. People legally possess firearms for hunting, target and competitive shooting, collecting and other lawful activities. Hunters, for example, may obtain a PAL to acquire the non restricted rifles and shotguns permitted for their activities, although they must also comply with the separate provincial or territorial hunting rules that apply to hunting itself. Sport shooters can legally participate in target shooting and competitions, while people seeking restricted firearms for target shooting must satisfy additional requirements, including demonstrating that they practise or compete at an approved shooting club or range.
Collectors are another category that often gets lost in the conversation. A person collecting firearms other than antiques and handguns must generally be at least 18 and hold the appropriate PAL for the class of firearm being collected. When restricted or prohibited firearms are involved, additional rules apply, and a collector may be required to demonstrate knowledge of the historical, scientific or technical characteristics of the firearms and comply with inspection and storage requirements. Since October 2022, individuals can no longer acquire handguns simply for the purpose of adding them to a collection.
Then there are antique firearms, and this is where Canadian law gets a little more complicated. A firearm isn’t legally an antique simply because somebody calls it old or hangs it over the fireplace. The firearm has to meet the specific definition contained in Canadian law. Generally, qualifying antique firearms include certain firearms manufactured before 1898 and particular firearms prescribed as antiques under federal regulations. According to the RCMP, someone who owns only firearms that legally qualify as antiques does not need a firearms licence or registration for those antiques. Modern reproductions do not automatically receive that exemption, and many still require a licence.
Canada also has provisions for younger people. Someone between 12 and 17 can obtain a Minor’s Licence after completing the required safety training and testing. That licence can allow them to borrow and use non restricted firearms for approved purposes such as hunting, target practice or organized shooting competitions, but it does not allow them to acquire firearms of their own. Once they turn 18, they must apply for a PAL if they want to continue as a licensed firearm owner. There are also specific exceptions connected to sustenance hunting.
Indigenous applicants are subject to Canada’s licensing framework as well, although federal regulations provide adaptations in certain circumstances. For example, some Indigenous Elders and other qualifying Indigenous applicants may seek alternative safety certification where the regular course is not reasonably available or accessible, provided they can demonstrate the required knowledge of firearm safety and Canadian firearms law.
What Canadians cannot generally do is obtain a firearm simply because they want to walk around armed for everyday personal protection. Restricted firearms can be authorized for specific purposes, and an Authorization to Carry can exist in very limited circumstances involving protection of life or particular lawful occupations, including certain wilderness work and licensed trapping. That is a far cry from the concealed carry culture we see south of the border.
There are also people who simply cannot legally qualify. A court firearms prohibition can prevent someone from possessing firearms, and an applicant whose prohibition has expired must meet specific safety training requirements before applying again. The licensing process is therefore supposed to establish that the person seeking access to firearms meets Canada’s legal and safety requirements before a licence is issued.
And even after receiving a licence, Canadian gun owners remain subject to rules governing possession, acquisition, storage, transportation and use. Restricted and prohibited firearms that can still legally be possessed are also subject to registration requirements. A PAL is therefore not some Canadian version of a blank cheque to buy whatever weapon you want.
That brings me back to the nearly 50 per cent increase in applications across the GTA. Why are more Canadians interested in legally owning firearms now than they were a decade ago? We cannot definitively say that crime or personal safety is responsible for the increase because people obtain firearms licences for perfectly ordinary reasons, including hunting, collecting, recreational shooting and competitive sport. But I also refuse to pretend that what is happening outside people’s front doors isn’t part of the conversation.
We have watched reports of home invasions, carjackings, auto thefts and random attacks dominate headlines and social media feeds. National crime statistics can tell us one story, but statistics do not necessarily tell us how secure somebody feels when they lock their front door at night. You can tell somebody that an overall crime index has declined, but if their neighbour’s vehicle was stolen from the driveway, somebody on their street experienced a home invasion or they have watched another disturbing random attack caught on camera, their perception of personal safety may tell them an entirely different story.
People don’t live inside a Statistics Canada spreadsheet. They live in neighbourhoods, apartment buildings and homes with children, parents and loved ones they want to protect. When people begin believing that criminals are becoming more brazen, the conversation about personal security changes very quickly. I believe that desire to feel secure and protected may be one of the factors worth examining when we discuss why more people are seeking firearms licences.
There is also another uncomfortable conversation that I believe Black Canadians in particular should be paying attention to, and that is the visibility of white nationalist and accelerationist extremist movements whose ideologies can include fantasies about racial conflict and a so called race war. I want to be very clear that there is currently no evidence establishing that fear of white nationalism is responsible for the increase in GTA gun licence applications. That would be irresponsible to present as fact. But I also don’t believe we should dismiss the anxiety that extremist rhetoric and increasing racial hostility can create among communities that historically know exactly what racial violence looks like.
Then there is the elephant sitting right in the middle of the room, and that is trust in law enforcement. When the public is confronted with allegations involving police corruption, misconduct, abuse of authority and assaults against women by individual officers, it should not surprise anyone that some people begin questioning the institutions they have traditionally been told will protect them. That does not mean every police officer is corrupt, and it certainly does not mean Canadians should abandon law enforcement and arm themselves. It means public confidence matters, and when that confidence begins to erode, people start asking what happens if danger reaches their door before police do.
For some Canadians, I believe obtaining a firearms licence may increasingly represent something beyond hunting or recreational shooting. It may represent preparation, independence and the psychological comfort of knowing that they have another lawful option available to them in an environment they increasingly perceive as unpredictable. That is my analysis of what may be contributing to this trend, not a proven explanation for why every individual applicant is seeking a licence.
There is also something critically important that Canadians need to understand before anybody interprets this conversation as an endorsement of vigilante justice. A firearms licence is not a licence to shoot somebody. Canadian self defence laws are separate from firearms licensing laws, and legally owning a firearm does not automatically authorize someone to use it against an intruder. It also does not generally permit someone to carry a firearm around for personal protection.
Still, I keep coming back to that increase in applications because numbers can tell us that something is happening without necessarily telling us why. When applications for firearms licences in Canada’s largest metropolitan region rise by nearly 50 per cent over roughly a decade, perhaps the question isn’t whether Canadians are suddenly becoming obsessed with guns. Maybe the question we really need to be asking is much more uncomfortable: what is happening in this country that is making more Canadians feel like they need one?
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