RCMP recovered 115 out of 205 lost firearms, 2 machine guns still missing

Former RCMP officer on how guns can go missing Former RCMP investigator Bruce Pitt-Payne discusses different scenarios of how guns can go missing and how the RCMP should be responding.

More than half of the 205 firearms lost by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police since 2020 have been recovered, but two machine guns remain missing.

CTVNews.ca previously reported that the RCMP had lost 205 firearms since 2020, including 122 handguns, 55 shotguns, 23 rifles and five fully automatic weapons. According to an RCMP spokesperson, 115 of those lost firearms have been recovered and redeployed to the field.

That number does not include two weapons classified by the RCMP and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as machine guns. These guns have been identified by the RCMP as Colt M16A1 model 881 carbines, a variant of the infamous American M16 rifle.

"If I were in charge of the RCMP, I certainly would launch a criminal investigation on every single one of those missing firearms," Rod Giltaca, CEO and executive director of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, recently told CTV News.

According to the RCMP spokesperson, all stolen, missing or lost firearms are reported to appropriate authorities. Members can also be subject to internal code of conduct investigations that can result in "measures that are proportionate to the nature and circumstances of the contravention and, where appropriate, that are educative, and remedial rather than punitive," the RCMP spokesperson said.

Former RCMP major crime investigator Bruce Pitt-Payne says although atypical, police firearms can go missing for a variety of reasons.

"People have made mistakes or been sloppy and left them somewhere and it was taken, those would be followed up with a code of conduct investigation, which would be very justifiable at that point," Pitt-Payne told CTV News Channel. "They're also lost for legitimate reasons. With the fires we've had in B.C., for instance, a member's house could be burned down, detachments have burned down, things like that. Or they're lost in bodies of water, if a member falls in the water or has to jump in, sometimes they're lost and not recovered."

Between 2000 and 2019, an additional 601 firearms were reported lost by police, including 15 machine-guns and submachine-guns, according to a previous RCMP access to information request. Eleven RCMP firearms have gone missing so far this year.

Canadians are largely prohibited from using or acquiring fully automatic weapons like the M16.

In 2020, the federal government announced a buyback program for banned assault-style firearms. The program has since cost taxpayers nearly $67.2 million, but has yet to fully launch or collect a single gun ahead of a proposed October 2025 deadline. According to the RCMP spokesperson, 24 members are currently working on the program, which is being led by the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. There are an estimated 150,000 prohibited assault-style firearms in the country.