Canada Is Closing In on 2.5 Million Licensed Gun Owners
Licence applications are up nearly 50 percent in the Toronto area since 2016, the national count is at a record, and the people applying look less and less like the stereotype.
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Canada ended 2025 with 2,458,677 licensed firearms owners, the highest count on record and close to the 2.5 million mark, with every province gaining. The growth is not coming from where the stereotype says it should: applications in the Greater Toronto Area are up nearly 50 percent since 2016, and in Peel they have more than doubled. Maclean's put the trend on the record this month, and it matches what the licensing data has shown for several years.
The numbers, and where they come from
The RCMP's licensing data shows PAL holders rising every year recently, with 2025 adding nearly 47,000 net new licence holders, a 1.9 percent annual gain. That is the official count of people who took the safety course, passed the background checks and waited out the process we describe in our PAL guide.
Maclean's adds the regional dimension: the strongest growth is in the suburbs of southern Ontario. About seven percent of Canadian adults own a firearm. That is nowhere near the American 32 percent, but it still represents more than two million people, and the number is growing rather than shrinking.
Who the new owners are
Since the 1980s, the proportion of women holding a firearms licence has been increasing faster than that of men, even though men remain the majority of licence holders. Women now represent about 13 percent of licensees, and their presence continues to grow. The profile of firearm owners is diversifying: age, gender, and background increasingly reflect the Canadian population. The community is expanding and diversifying.
The self-defence number
The most quoted line from the Maclean's report is this: in 2023, 30 percent of gun-owning Canadians said self-defence was their primary reason for owning a gun, up from about six percent in the late 1990s.
That is a real survey finding about motivation, and it deserves a plain legal note next to it, because the two things are not the same.
Wanting to feel safer is a motivation. It is not a licence category. In other words, what people declare as their motivation has no impact on the licence categories recognized by law. Canadian licensing recognizes purposes such as hunting and target shooting. A firearm cannot be carried for personal protection, carry authorizations are extremely rare, and storage rules require firearms to be unloaded and locked at home. Changes in the reasons people give do not change what the licence legally allows.
What a record licence count means in practice
More licence holders means more people in exactly the situation BrassNet was built for: newly certified, first firearm not yet chosen, no club, no one to ask questions to. Some will turn to the used market to buy from a private seller.
If you’re among the 47,000 who joined the registry last year, the paperwork was the easy part. The rest, what to buy, where to shoot, who to learn from, that’s what the community is for.
Common questions
- How many Canadians hold a firearms licence?
- As of 31 December 2025 there were 2,458,677 PAL holders, the highest count on record and an increase of nearly 47,000 over the previous year, based on RCMP licensing data.
- Why are applications rising in cities like Toronto?
- Permit applications are rising because interest in firearms is growing across multiple demographic groups, driven by safety concerns, sport shooting, cultural factors, and this despite political restrictions.
- Is self-defence a legal reason to get a PAL in Canada?
- Self‑defence is recognized under Canadian law, but it is not accepted as a valid reason to obtain a firearms licence. Canada distinguishes between the right to use a firearm in a self‑defence situation and the right to obtain one for self‑defence, this one not being considered a legitimate reason when applying for a PAL/RPAL.
- How does Canadian gun ownership compare with the United States?
- About seven percent of Canadian adults own a firearm, against roughly 32 percent of Americans, so the gap remains wide even at a record licence count.
Sources and verification
This article is not legal advice. Always confirm with the official source before acting on it.
