A federal buyback of assault-style firearms from individual owners announced earlier this month prompted misleading social media posts from American influencers saying it will soon become “criminal” to own a gun in Canada.
The posts claim all Canadians are being forced to hand over their guns, but in fact many guns are not on the list of federally prohibited weapons. Many firearms used for sport and hunting remain legal, although owners must have a licence to own them.
“Canada is forcing all Canadians to hand in their guns,” reads a Sept. 28 post from the U.S. politics-focused account @WallStreetMav on the X platform, formerly Twitter. “They have one year to get compensation by handing in their guns. Starting in October 2026 it will become criminal to own a gun.”
The post, which had more than five million views and 49,000 likes at the time of publication, included a video taken from a TikTok post that showed Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree announcing a gun buyback pilot project at a news conference last week.
Other U.S. accounts on X and Facebook repeated the claim, with some adding comments advocating that Alberta join the United States: “Let’s make Alberta the 51st state.”
Only certain types of firearms are covered by federal gun restrictions, and Canadians with a possession and acquisition licence are able to own other firearms for sport and hunting.
More than 2.4 million people in Canada have a firearms licence, according to a 2024 RCMP report.
There are three classes of firearms in Canada: non-restricted, restricted and prohibited.
Since May 2020, Ottawa has prohibited approximately 2,500 types of what it calls assault-style firearms — semi-automatics with sustained rapid-fire capability.
On Sept. 23, Anandasangaree announced that a federal gun buyback program for prohibited firearms will be open first to eligible gun owners in select areas of Cape Breton before it is launched to the rest of the country.
Anandasangaree said gun owners have until October 2026 to hand prohibited guns over to the government in exchange for compensation, or they can export, deactivate or turn them into police without compensation.
Compensation offered to gun owners ranges from $150 to $9,945 depending on the make and model.
An earlier phase of the compensation program saw more than 12,000 firearms handed in by businesses, with approximately $22 million in compensation paid out.
The federal government says that some 19,000 types of non-restricted firearms remain available for use in Canada.
Many firearms popular with sport shooters or hunters are still legal to own in Canada.
The Remington 700 bolt-action rifle and shotguns like the Mossberg 500 and Remington 870, for example, are not among the list of banned guns.
A freeze on handgun sales, purchases or transfers came into effect in October 2022. This limited handgun purchases to certain exempted businesses and individuals, such as law enforcement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2025.
