Lost or stolen firearm in Canada: what to do

A lost or stolen firearm in Canada means two immediate reports: your local police service, and the Canadian Firearms Program at 1-800-731-4000. This isn’t just good practice - section 105 of the Criminal Code makes it a duty and requires it “with reasonable despatch.”

Here’s the full sequence for each scenario - theft, loss, a found firearm, and the lost licence card - plus the preparation that makes the bad day manageable.

Warning: Failing to report a lost or stolen firearm “with reasonable despatch” is an offence under section 105 of the Criminal Code, carrying up to five years’ imprisonment. The duty covers every firearm class, non-restricted rifles included.

Stolen: the break-in checklist

1. Call police first. 911 if the intrusion is fresh; the non-emergency line otherwise. Get a file number - the CFP, your insurer, and any future trace all want it.
2. Call the CFP: 1-800-731-4000. They record the loss against your licence and, for restricted firearms, the registration. This is the second half of the legal duty, not a courtesy.
3. Give both reports the details: make, model, serial number, calibre, distinguishing marks. This is where the handbook’s advice to keep a firearms inventory stops being theoretical - photos and serials in a safe place turn a fuzzy report into a traceable one.
4. Don’t tidy the scene until police say so, and list everything else taken - ammunition, magazines, the cabinet itself.
5. Insurer next. Home policies often cover firearms with limits and conditions; the police file number anchors the claim.

Expect questions about storage. If the firearms were stored legally - locked, unloaded, ammunition managed - the theft is the criminal’s crime alone. If they weren’t, the theft can expose the owner to an unsafe-storage charge, which is a hard conversation this page can’t soften: store correctly before the break-in.

Lost: same duty, humbler story

Firearms get genuinely lost - left at a camp, fallen from a boat, misplaced in a move. The law doesn’t distinguish embarrassment from burglary:

• Same two reports, police and CFP, as soon as you know it’s gone. “Reasonable despatch” means the day you realize, not the week after you’ve re-searched the truck.
• Retrace honestly. A firearm forgotten at a range, a relative’s farm, or a hunt camp isn’t lost if a call finds it - but once you believe it’s out of your control, report rather than hope.
• A loss during a move between provinces is the same duty, with the added reason to have photographed serials before the truck was loaded.

Found a firearm? That’s also section 105

Finding a firearm - inherited house cleanouts produce these constantly - triggers the mirror-image duty: report the find to police or a firearms officer, and don’t take it into your own use. Practically: don’t transport it anywhere; call the non-emergency police line and follow their direction. An unlicensed finder who quietly keeps it has converted a windfall into a possession offence.

Ammunition, magazines, accessories

The section 105 duty covers firearms, prohibited weapons and devices, and prohibited ammunition. Ordinary cartridges and hunting supplies aren’t in it - but a theft worth reporting to insurance is worth listing completely with police, and stolen over-capacity or pinned magazines belong in the report.

Lost licence card (the smaller emergency)

A missing PAL card is a replacement, not a section 105 report: contact the CFP for a replacement, and add local police if it was stolen - an identity document in a wallet theft. The process, and why not to delay it, is in the renewals and replacements guide. Your licence itself remains valid; you just can’t transact at a counter without the card.

The five-minute preparation that fixes all of this

• Inventory: serials, photos, receipts - stored away from the firearms (cloud counts).
• Storage that would survive scrutiny - the legal standard, honestly met.
• The two numbers saved in your phone: local non-emergency police, and CFP 1-800-731-4000.

All of it is course material before it’s crisis material - the CFSC covers the reporting duties in its responsibilities module. Find a course near you if you’re still on the licensing path; keep the inventory current if you’re past it.