The federal government admits there is no legal definition of an “assault-style firearm” — despite banning thousands of firearms under the label.
Public Safety Canada made the admission in response to a written parliamentary question asking the government to define the term.
“There is no legal definition of an assault-style firearm,” Public Safety said, adding that firearms are instead classified according to criteria in section 84(1) of the Criminal Code.
Public Safety said firearms prohibited in May 2020, December 2024 and March 2025 share “common technical characteristics,” including “semi-automatic action with sustained rapid-fire capability” and “tactical or military design with large capacity magazine.”
The department said the firearms were deemed unsuitable for civilian use because they “can inflict significant harm and can increase the severity of mass shootings.”
“These weapons are primarily designed for military or paramilitary purposes to produce mass human casualties or cause significant property damage at long ranges,” Public Safety said.
Ottawa has nevertheless established prospective Criminal Code criteria capturing certain newly designed semi-automatic firearms.
In 2023, Public Safety described the measure as a “new technical definition” containing the characteristics of assault-style firearms while stressing it would be forward-looking and apply to firearms designed and manufactured after the provisions came into force.
Those criteria are distinct from a legal definition of the broader term “assault-style firearm,” which Public Safety now says does not exist.
The RCMP also acknowledged it does not specifically collect data on crimes involving “assault-style firearms.”
“The Royal Canadian Mounted Police does not collect data specifically regarding gun crimes for assault-style firearms,” the response said.
The RCMP also could not say how many of its 2021–2025 traces involved assault-style firearms.
“The level of detail of the information requested is not tracked within the existing internal database,” the force said.
Asked for traces broken down by firearm reference number, make and model, the RCMP again said its tracing centre “does not collect information specifically regarding assault-style firearms.”
While the RCMP doesn’t track the assault-style category, its data show a sharp rise in suspected illegally imported crime guns.
The Canadian National Firearms Tracing Centre recorded 1,464 such traces in 2025, up from 487 in 2024 and 271 in 2023.
The RCMP reported 3,011 crime-related traces in 2025, but the categories may overlap. The figures also exclude separate tracing systems in Ontario and Quebec.
The admission comes as Ottawa carries out its Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program.
The government estimates approximately 180,000 affected firearms were held by businesses and individuals before the program began, including 166,555 held by individuals.
As of June 8, individual owners had declared 68,717 firearms — about 41 per cent of the government’s estimated individual inventory.
Declarations count firearms, not owners, and do not necessarily mean the firearms had already been surrendered.
Ottawa allocated $248.6 million to compensate businesses and individual owners. As of June 8, businesses had claimed 74,073 firearms and received approximately $96.1 million.
The program stems from the Liberal government’s May 2020 prohibition of more than 1,500 firearm models and variants it describes as “assault-style.” Further prohibitions in December 2024 and March 2025 brought the total to more than 2,500 makes and models.
Yet the nationwide compensation program for individual owners did not open until January 2026 — nearly six years after the original prohibition.
The amnesty deadline has also repeatedly been extended and is now set to expire 90 days after the Supreme Court of Canada rules on a challenge to the 2020 regulations.
The Supreme Court agreed in March 2026 to hear the challenge over whether cabinet acted within its Criminal Code authority when prohibiting firearms previously legal for licensed owners.
A 2023 Public Safety Canada study found participating firearm owners frequently viewed the ban and buyback as wasteful because they believed it failed to target illegal firearms trafficking.
“Often the ban and the buyback program were seen as wasteful because the policy isn’t aimed at stopping illegal gun smuggling and sales,” researchers wrote.
“Most firearms owners did not see themselves or their peers as a major factor in gun crimes in Canada.”
First of all, a 30-round magazine is a standard magazine, and requiring manufacturers to pin them to 5 rounds doesn't deter criminals from restoring them to their typical capacity. It's just another stupid restriction law-abiding owners have to abide by while criminals continue on their merry way. Secondly, are we surprised? Why would they bother defining it? That would hem in their ability to continually expand it to more and more firearms. The WK180 was never designed to go to war; it was a cheap workaround for the 2020 bans. Mark my words, they'll come after semi-auto shotguns next, then it'll be another joule restriction (aka restricting the maximum effect on target you can have, which is why .50 is now prohibited). This is plainly about disarmament and not safety. If it were about safety, they'd focus on making sure criminals were kept in prison, not out on bail.