Canadian-born Hashim Akbar first shot his grandfather's gun as a child while visiting Pakistan.

"It was obviously scary. I was a small child, but it was also very exciting as well. There's ... a lot of adrenalin that goes through someone's body," said Akbar, 23, vice-president of the Simon Fraser Sports Shooting Club (SFSSC) in Burnaby, B.C.

As a teen, the university student tried and loved skeet shooting and now owns his own lever-action rifle. He applied for a gun licence last October, making him one of 7,446 Canadians under 30 to do so in 2024. But by the time he received the document, the guns he wanted were prohibited by the federal government.

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