Guns from USA being smuggled into Canada

August 10, 2005
COPYRIGHT MACLEANS.CA

American guns, Canadian violence

Weapons are crossing the border by the thousands and the number of people wounded and killed in this country is mounting

In the past two weeks, five people have been killed and 11 injured in 14 separate shootings in Toronto, including one that sent a four-year-old boy to hospital with four bullet wounds, and another that scattered late-night revellers from a downtown square. The unrelenting stream of gunplay drew alarmed reaction from politicians, including Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, and it didn't take long for someone to point a finger south. Mayor David Miller, among others, singled out the U.S. as a prime source of gangland weapons on Canadian streets, saying the guns that come over the border are "very easily accessible to these kinds of thugs."

If the experience of Canada's border agents is anything to go by, Miller is right. In the past five years, authorities have seized more than 5,400 firearms coming into the country from the United States, a figure believed to represent a fraction of the northward flow. The lion's share of those weapons -- some 3,695 -- were handguns, which tells you something about who was doing the buying. Pistols, after all, are the tools of the urban street gang, and a threefold growth in gang-related killings since the mid-1990s is the one glaring exception to Canada's overall decline in violent crime. At the same time, handguns have been steadily supplanting long-barrelled guns as weapons of choice in gun homicides, reflecting what experts see as a critical shift in the nature of violent crime in Canada. "Overall, there are more gang and drug-related killings, and fewer family killings," says Tom Gabor, a University of Ottawa criminologist. "Those involved in the former seem to have a preference for handguns, many of which are unregistered and likely smuggled into the country."

CLICK HERE to read complete MacLean's special report on guns being smuggled into Canada from USA.

michael mccafferty comments:

The Government of Canada must take strong measures to crack down on the shocking number of handguns being smuggled into Canada from the USA. Prime Minister Martin must make ti a priority to stop the flood of handguns coming into our country. This is a serious issue and Ottawa must take action !