Explained | How widespread is gun ownership in Canada?

Ten people including the shooter are dead after an assailant described by police as ​female opened fire at a high school in western Canada on Tuesday, one of the country's deadliest mass casualty incidents in recent history.

Canada has tightened its gun laws in recent years, but has experienced mass shootings in the past and gun ownership is permitted.

Here are key details about Canada's gun control laws -

Are guns illegal in Canada?

No. Canada has ⁠much stricter gun laws than the United States, but Canadians are allowed to own firearms providing they have a licence. Restricted or prohibited firearms, like handguns, ⁠must also be registered.

Canadians must be over 18 and pass a firearms safety course to hold a ‌licence, which is renewed every five years.

Children aged 12-17 ​can get a minor's licence, allowing them to borrow non-restricted firearms like most rifles or shotguns for hunting or shooting competitions, and buy ammunition.

Exceptions may be made for under-12s, including indigenous children, who need to hunt to sustain themselves and their families.

Indigenous people who engage in traditional hunting practices may not need to take a firearms safety course if it is too far away or expensive. Instead they can ask for alternative certification based on a recommendation ​from a community elder confirming they have necessary firearms ⁠knowledge.

How have gun laws been tightened?

Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government introduced a number of restrictions on gun ownership starting in 2020 following a mass shooting in Portapique, Nova Scotia and the Uvalde school shooting in Texas.

More than 2,500 makes and models of assault-style firearms, like the AR-15 rifle, have been banned since May 2020, according to Public Safety Canada.

A freeze on the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns was ⁠introduced in 2022.

However, attempts ‌to ban certain types of rifles and shotguns were abandoned after opposition from farmers and hunters.

Further legislation enacted in December 2023 prohibited new makes and models of certain firearms, increased penalties for firearms smuggling and trafficking, and added new ‌offences related to illegally manufactured guns.

It also included "red flag" laws and expanded licence revocation and ineligibility provisions to help address the role of firearms in domestic abuse, Public Safety Canada said.

How ill guns be removed from circulation?

Owners of banned assault weapons must give up or permanently deactivate their guns before an amnesty expires in October. To encourage this, the Canadian government has instituted a multi-million-dollar voluntary ‌buyback program that will run until the end of March for individuals.

The ban on certain types of assault-style weapons ‌has drawn criticism from gun rights and hunting groups, many of which also object to the compensation program.

Some Canadian provinces, ‌such as Alberta and Saskatchewan, have refused to participate in the buyback program, citing concerns about the cost and safety risk to officials ‌of taking part.

How many guns are there in Canada?

The number of registered handguns increased by 71% between 2010 and 2020, reaching approximately 1.1 million, according to the federal government.

A 2017 Small Arms Survey estimated there were 12.7 million firearms in civilian possession in Canada, and there are an estimated 34.7 firearms per 100 people.

Where is gun ownership concentrated?

According to ⁠the Royal Canadian Mounted Police more than 2.2 million people held gun licences in 2020.

Most of those were in Ontario and Quebec, the two most densely populated provinces, followed by the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.

A 2019 Angus Reid survey found most guns in Canada are found in rural areas and used for hunting and recreational shooting.

How many people die from gun violence in Canada?

Canada's rate of firearm homicides is 0.5 per 100,000 people, versus the United States' rate of 4.12, the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) said in a 2021 analysis.

How many mass shootings has Canada seen recently?

1989 - 14 women engineering students were killed in their classroom at the ​Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec.

1992 - four professors were shot dead by a colleague at Concordia University, Montreal.

2006 - a gunman killed one ​woman and injured 19 other people in a shooting at ​Dawson College in Montreal.

2016 - a teenager killed four people in La Loche, Saskatchewan.

2017 - six Muslim men were killed in a shooting at a mosque in Quebec City.

2020 - a gunman driving a ​fake police car killed 22 people in multiple shootings and a fire he set in Portapique, Nova Scotia, the deadliest shooting rampage in Canadian history.