Data from the RCMP's 2025 Commissioner of Firearms Report, first reported by TheGunBlog.ca, shows there were 2,458,677 Canadians holding a Possession and Acquisition Licence (PAL) as of Dec. 31, 2025. That's an increase of nearly 47,000 licence holders from the previous year and a 1.9 percent annual gain.

Every province and territory saw growth.

Ontario added the largest number of new licence holders, with 15,221 additional PAL holders, followed by Alberta and British Columbia, each adding more than 10,000. Quebec surpassed 500,000 licensed gun owners for the first time in nearly two decades.

The figures come after years of federal efforts to restrict firearms ownership, including the 2020 Order-in-Council gun ban, a national handgun freeze, ongoing confiscation plans and repeated attempts to portray licensed gun owners as a public safety problem.

Instead, the number of licensed firearms owners has continued to climb. In fact, PAL ownership has increased in 15 of the last 16 years. The only decline came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when lockdowns and course cancellations disrupted licensing.

The data also shows growing interest in restricted firearms licensing. The number of Restricted Possession and Acquisition Licences (RPALs) rose 2.5 percent to 794,768, outpacing growth in standard PALs despite increasingly limited opportunities to acquire restricted firearms.

Other indicators point to a healthy and growing shooting sports community. Canada now has 946 shooting ranges, 767 shooting clubs and 2,407 firearms businesses. Minor's licences also increased, rising from 13,505 to 14,984.

Meanwhile, Canadians submitted 417,748 applications to transfer ownership of non-restricted firearms in 2025. If each application resulted in a purchase, that would represent more than 1,100 firearm transfers every day.

The numbers reinforce a reality often overlooked in political debates: despite being one of the most heavily regulated firearms jurisdictions in the world, Canada remains a country where millions of people participate in hunting, sport shooting, collecting and other lawful firearms activities.

For all the political attention devoted to gun control, the RCMP's own numbers suggest that shooting sports remain one of Canada's most popular recreational activities. By participation alone, licensed firearm ownership now involves roughly one in every thirteen Canadian adults, more than those who play organized hockey, making shooting sports the unofficial national sport, according to the numbers. 

The federal government may continue treating lawful gun owners as a political punching bag, but the latest figures suggest Canadians are not giving up their sport, their traditions or their licences.