The number of Canadian licences for handguns, AR-15 rifles and other so-called “restricted” firearms rose to 497,686 at the end of June, the RCMP said today in an e-mailed response to questions by TheGunBlog.ca. That’s an increase of 26,163 from Dec. 31, and the highest level on record. At that rate, the number of “restricted”…

The Canadian government rejected a petition to simplify buying and using AR-15 rifles, saying it’s the RCMP’s job to decide such changes. The government doesn’t plan to reclassify the firearm as “non-restricted” from its current label of “restricted,” Ralph Goodale, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, said today in a written response to a…

Derek Jones has a dream. For the past three years, in addition to his job making cameras for military drones, he has been meeting designers, planners, politicians, regulators, architects and investors to build Canada’s snazziest shooting club.

Shooting is one of the original sports of the modern Olympics, having been part of the first edition of the games in 1896. The founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was a French pistol champion.

The RCMP’s ban on Ruger 10/22 magazines capable of holding more than 10 cartridges is unconstitutional, the lawyer for the Canadian Shooting Sports Association said, urging owners, importers and sellers of the products to join a legal defence.

Lynda Kiejko qualified as one of two shooters representing Canada in next month’s Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The 35-year-old resident of Calgary will compete in the women’s 25-metre pistol and 10-metre air pistol. Kiejko began shooting at the age of 11 after her father, a three-time Olympic shooter, now deceased, set up an air-pistol…

The RCMP’s attack on owners of the popular Ruger 10/22 small-calibre rifle is prompting Canadian gun-rights groups to unite in opposition. The RCMP plans to reclassify 10/22 magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of the .22 LR cartridge as “prohibited devices,” Calibre Magazine said July 18, potentially leading to criminal charges for anyone who owns, transports or sells them.…

The following are comments by Canada’s Ministry of Public Safety about the government’s priorities for firearm policies.

The RCMP used to issue about 140,000 Authorizations To Transport (ATT) firearms each year to civilians who asked for permission to take their guns from the store to home, or from home to the target range, the gunsmith or the airport. Most of them were for target practice and sports shooting, the RCMP said in a notice in…

DemolitionRanch attracted subscribers faster than any other major YouTube gun channel in the first six months of this year, while James Yeager added more videos than any of his peers in that period. The ranking of the top 10 channels has remained unchanged since December, with FPSRussia, hickok45 and FullMag holding onto the first three spots. This…