r/canadaguns • u/Noah_S_Schwartz • May 19 '26

News / Politics / Activism When did Canada ban firearm suppressors/silencers/sound moderators?

Hi all. I am a researcher who does work on Firearms Policy. I am working on a policy paper to advocate for legalizing suppressors (as is the case in New Zealand, the UK, and most of Canada's peer countries in Europe).

I'm trying to figure out exactly when Canada banned firearm suppressors, and it's proving more difficult than I thought.

Most commentary or news sources trace the prohibition to the "early 1900s" but don't reference any laws, acts, or statutes - or even a specific year. I have checked the 1919 and 1927 editions of the criminal code, and can find no reference to a ban. It's not until the 1953 edition that Section 84 lays out a clear prohibition.

I've also searched through newspaper databases from that period (Globe, Citizen & Gazette), and the Parliamentary Hansard.

It's clear I'm missing a piece of the puzzle, but I can't seem to find it. Thus, I turn to the great collective wisdom of Reddit.

Any information or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

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u/Remarkable_Vanilla34 May 19 '26

Because the US did. Well they tried and basically did for a long time. And politicians are idiots who think guns work like they do in movies.

There was a petition a few years back I belibe amd the government just laughed and shut it down.

I don't get it, we are so obsessed with being in line with European countries but firearms we insist on being just being regressive, because its un-American or something.

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u/DryF1re May 19 '26

Canadian identity partially revolves around just being not-American. Bugs the shit out of me.

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u/Dickastigmatism May 19 '26

It's our entire identity dude. Take away the fact that we're not technically Americans and what are we? Americans.

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u/HappyCan7250 May 20 '26

I mean we sort of are Americans. We're (mostly) all descendants of the same folks, just one group decided to fight back against the crown, and the other didnt. 

Plus, we are basically Americans, it is North America after all. We call people from Asia, Asians, so we are North Americans, not North Canadians!

It is hilarious how fixated so many Canadians are on being anything but American though. It's especially funny, because if you erased the arbitrary line between our 2 countries, you'd have a VERY hard time telling you're in a different country, anywhere. Seattle and Vancouver are extremely similar, Alberta/SK are very similar to their southern neighbours, Toronto is basically just a mini NYC. Olivia Chong might even be worse than Mamdani! Without border crossings and agents and flags, you'd have a very hard time telling where America ends and Canada begins. The folks on either side are more similar than most realize.

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u/Darunk May 20 '26

What’s wrong with Mamdani? Seems to be doing a world of good in NYC