- Location
- Calgary, Alberta
I think that's because most Colts are registered as "SP-1", or "HBAR"
Armalites are "M15"
Bushmasters are "XM-15"
and so on.... ect.
I don't think so, when I was on the phone to a registry guy in Ottawa (yes Ottawa, that's not a mistake) he went through a pretty lengthy list of FRT numbers for AR-15 variants. Maybe that figure doesn't include them all but I think it includes most of them.
When semi-auto centrefire rifles were banned in the UK there were 8,172 of them and given that we're only talking about one type of rifle in a country with half the population (albeit where gun ownership is more popular) that CFC figure sounds plausible to me.
In Canada also the fact that AR-15s are restricted and so many other semi-auto .223s are not, that provides a big disincentive to have one.
I realize it is anecdotal but at IPSC matches I go to some people have them but often I encounter shooters who had one but never used it so they sold it. Or I've been on the range on various occasions (usually around hunting season) and people ask me what it is I'm shooting and I'm dumbfounded they've never seen an AR-15 before.
I think on forums like this we end up getting a magnified impression of how many people own them.