Your Authorization to Carry Questions, Answered

By Travis Bader, founder of Silvercore Outdoors. Running Silvercore's Authorization to Carry proficiency course in British Columbia.

A short video I posted on whether you can legally carry a handgun in Canada drew hundreds of comments on Instagram alone, more again on the other platforms, and my other Authorization to Carry videos added hundreds more. Most of them were the same handful of questions, asked with varying levels of confidence, and a good share of the confident ones were wrong. So I recorded nine short answers, one per question, and checked every claim against the Firearms Act, the regulations and the Criminal Code before recording. This page collects all nine with the written answer and the source under each one.

The short version: an Authorization to Carry is real, people get them, the handgun freeze does not close the door, and the rules are narrower than most commenters think in some places and looser in others. The free ATC Field Guide, the forms and the BC proof of proficiency standard are all on the Authorization to Carry guide page.

Can you get a handgun in Canada with an Authorization to Carry?

Yes. Since October 21, 2022, the average licence holder cannot buy or import a handgun. That is the freeze. The freeze regulations, and now the Firearms Act itself at section 97.1, carve out exempted individuals, and holders of an Authorization to Carry are one of them. Hold an ATC and you can lawfully acquire a handgun to fill it.

The chicken-and-egg problem, needing a pistol to shoot the proficiency test before you hold the authorization, has a plain answer. A student of ours put that question to the BC Chief Firearms Officer's office in writing in March 2026 and shared the reply: rent a suitable handgun from the range where you shoot the test, or lawfully borrow one, and shoot the test with that.

So the freeze is not a reason to give up on an ATC. For the people who qualify, it is the reason to get one.

Source: Firearms Act, S.C. 1995, c. 39, s. 97.1; SOR/2022-219.

How many Authorizations to Carry does Canada actually issue?

Nobody knows the current number, because the RCMP stopped publishing it. From 1999 to 2004 the Commissioner of Firearms reported between roughly 4,400 and 7,000 Authorizations to Carry issued every year, armoured car guards included. That is a long way from "only one or two people in the country."

The 2025 Commissioner of Firearms Report lists 28,052 Authorizations to Transport and not one line on Authorizations to Carry. So when someone tells you nobody gets approved, ask where the number came from. There is no public one. I have filed an access to information request with the RCMP (file EA2026_0192550) for ATCs by province and by circumstance, and I will publish what comes back.

What I can tell you from running the proficiency course: prepared, eligible applicants get approved.

Sources: Justice Canada, Firearm Statistics Updated Tables, RR06-2, Table 6; 2025 Commissioner of Firearms Report.

Can a hiker or hunter get an Authorization to Carry?

No. The regulation does not ask how much danger you are in. It asks what you do for a living. The wilderness stream covers someone working in a remote wilderness area who needs to protect life from wild animals, or a licensed trapper. The Canadian Firearms Program reads "working" as actively employed or self-employed in the area where you want to carry, and they will ask you to prove it.

Hiking is not an occupation. Neither is hunting, owning a hundred acres, or building your own cabin. Applications die on exactly this point before anyone reads page two. Whether the rule makes sense is a fair question. The rule as written is the rule you are applying under.

Source: Authorizations to Carry Restricted Firearms and Certain Handguns Regulations, SOR/98-207, s. 3.

What calibre do you need for an Authorization to Carry?

Whatever you can articulate and justify. The form is not the law. The Authorization to Carry regulations do not name a calibre, not a minimum and not a maximum. The numbers people quote, .357 Magnum minimum for wilderness protection and .22 rimfire maximum for trapping, come from the BC Chief Firearms Officer's proof of proficiency standard. That is the course of fire they will put you through by default. It is not a legal floor or ceiling.

I hold an ATC for a .40 calibre Smith & Wesson. I have held one for a 9 mm. Both were accepted because I could explain why that firearm fit the work. The fellow in the comments who was told 9 mm would not be accepted did not hit a law, he hit a default. Same for a trapper who needs more than a .22. Where people fail is treating the form as the rule and never making the case.

Other provinces set their own standard. Confirm with your CFO before you buy or borrow anything. The default courses of fire, round counts and scoring are on the guide page.

Source: SOR/98-207, s. 4 (training mandated only for the s. 2 and s. 3(a) streams; wilderness and trapping proficiency is CFO policy); BC and Yukon CFO proof of proficiency standard.

Does trapping have to be your main income?

No. There is no percentage of income anywhere in the regulation. The words are "engaged in the occupation of trapping" and "working in a remote wilderness area", and occupation and working are the test.

What kills applications is hobby framing: a couple of weekends of panning, or trips out to the cabin. Show real work that earns or is meant to earn. And understand that the carry ends with the job. When the occupation ends, the authorization is revoked.

Source: SOR/98-207, ss. 3 and 7.

What happens if your Authorization to Carry is refused?

The fee is not refundable, and the refusal must come in writing with reasons. Most refusals are paperwork, not policy: wrong stream, no proof of the work, proficiency shot to the wrong standard. Fix them and reapply. Every application is its own fee, and every circumstance is its own application, so trapping dispatch and wilderness protection are two applications and two fees.

There is no built-in appeal. The Firearms Act's reference hearing before a provincial court judge covers licences and transport authorizations, not Authorizations to Carry. The only route past a CFO who says no is judicial review, and that is a lawyer's job, not a form. In practice the next step is almost always a better application.

Sources: Firearms Act, s. 74; SOR/98-207, s. 8; BC CFO office correspondence, March 2026, on one application per circumstance.

Can you legally carry an antique handgun in Canada?

Half right, half a criminal charge. Under the Criminal Code an antique is a firearm made before 1898 that either was not designed for rimfire or centrefire cartridges, or sits on the prescribed antique list. That list knocks out anything designed for a cartridge you can still buy at the counter, such as .38 S&W, .44-40 or .45 Colt, and a reproduction handgun never qualifies.

What the status gets you: for the possession offences, sections 91 to 95, and for the whole Firearms Act, an antique is deemed not to be a firearm. No licence, no registration, no transport authorization.

What it does not get you: section 90, carrying a concealed weapon, is not on that list. An antique is still a weapon. Put it under your coat and you have committed the offence. Storage and careless-use rules still apply, and provincial wildlife and park rules are a separate layer. An antique sidesteps the licensing system. It does not sidestep the criminal law on how you carry it.

Sources: Criminal Code, ss. 84(1), 84(3), 84(3.1), 90; Regulations Prescribing Antique Firearms, SOR/98-464.

Where do you find the actual law on Authorizations to Carry?

Do not take my word for it. Section 20 of the Firearms Act is the authority to issue an Authorization to Carry, and it names the two grounds: protection of life, which goes to the Commissioner, and lawful profession or occupation, which goes to your provincial Chief Firearms Officer. Wilderness work and trapping live in the Authorizations to Carry Restricted Firearms and Certain Handguns Regulations, SOR/98-207. Your CFO sets the proof of proficiency standard. The Commissioner's annual report tells you what the system is doing. Read the law, then read the guide, then decide.

• Firearms Act, S.C. 1995, c. 39
• SOR/98-207, Authorizations to Carry Restricted Firearms and Certain Handguns Regulations
• Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46, Part III
• 2025 Commissioner of Firearms Report

How do you actually change Canada's gun laws?

Not in the comments section. Nobody who writes regulation reads them. Here is what they do read.

In December 2025 the Minister of Public Safety committed to a comprehensive review of how firearms are classified in this country: firearms, devices, magazines and ammunition. The government says it weighed the Mass Casualty Commission report, its expert panel and industry, and the SKS is on the consultation table. So where does a written opinion land? Three places.

1. Canada Gazette, Part I. Proposed firearms regulations get posted there for public comment, usually for thirty days. Not every one; some go straight to law. The ones that get posted get read, and the comments get answered in the regulation itself. gazette.gc.ca, Part I
2. The Firearms Policy Division at Public Safety Canada. That is the contact on every firearms regulation: [email protected].
3. The House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. When a firearms bill is in front of it, anyone can send a written brief. ourcommons.ca, SECU

Written submissions get logged. Comment sections do not. If you have the energy to type a paragraph under a video, you have the energy to send it somewhere that counts.

Sources: Public Safety Canada statement, 4 December 2025; Canada Gazette Part II RIAS contact blocks, SOR/2025-227 and SOR/2025-86.

The "just carry a 12 gauge" question

The most repeated advice under the original video, for everyone who will never qualify, was to carry a shotgun instead. That answer is province by province and park by park, so check your provincial wildlife rules and the rules of the park you are in before you carry one.

Get the guide, then get it right

Every video above points to the same place. The free ATC Field Guide walks through the qualifying circumstances, the application package, the BC proof of proficiency courses of fire and the mistakes that cost people a year. If you are in the wilderness or trapping stream in BC, the Wilderness Authorization to Carry course is the proficiency test your CFO will ask for.

If you are going to hold an ATC, you are going to hold a restricted firearm, and that means an RPAL, an Authorization to Transport and a club. The Silvercore Club gives you the club membership your provincial CFO looks for when issuing a long-term ATT, includes free access to Silvercore online courses, and carries $5 million in liability coverage through Lloyd's of London while you are engaged in lawful firearms activities.

Continue on the Silvercore Path

• Start here: Authorization to Carry in Canada: Do You Qualify?
• Wilderness Authorization to Carry (ATC) proficiency course
• PAL vs RPAL: What's the Difference?
• Silvercore Podcast Ep. 135: Legally Obtaining an Authorization to Carry in Canada
• Join the Silvercore Club

Travis Bader

Silvercore Outdoors