Toronto’s streets are rife with gun crime and there are no signs that the shootings are slowing down.
The Toronto Police Service updated its firearm crime portal on July 8, showing that there were 253 shootings this year — an increase of 68.7% compared to the same time last year. Gun crime has resulted in 25 deaths so far in 2024, an increase of 108.3% — more than double the 12 fatalities reported in 2023.
The Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights questioned in a post to X the logic behind Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s gun ban. The coalition added that youth-involved gun crime has increased 109% despite the policy.
As of Monday, five additional shootings not included in the latest data update have been reported, with one of them leaving a 16-year-old boy dead.
Deputy Chief Robert Johnson previously said that the rise in youth-involved gun crimes is particularly concerning, with young people increasingly recruited by gangs.
He added that 85% to 90% of handguns and assault rifles seized from crimes originate from south of the border, mainly from Ohio, Texas, Florida, and Michigan.
Rod Giltaca, CEO of the CCFR, told True North that the easiest way for criminals to get guns is to smuggle them.
“They use rail transport, which goes largely unchecked by the CBSA; they move guns through Indigenous reserves — that’s a very commonly known route to law enforcement — and they even fly handguns across the border on drones,” said Giltaca.
Less than 1% of shipping containers, often with stolen guns and cars inside of them, are being inspected by the Canada Border Service Agency.
According to Johnson, police are collaborating with government agencies, including the Canada Border Services Agency and U.S. partners, to tackle the issue.
True North previously reported that legal firearm owners are rarely involved in gun homicides.
The Liberals’ approach to combatting gun violence from illegal foreign firearms has been to target legal Canadian gun owners.
Trudeau’s gun buyback previously reached $42 million spent, despite not having purchased a single firearm.
The Liberals have since unveiled plans to allow retailers to surrender firearms as part of the gun buyback program using mail with implementation expected by Fall.
Tracey Wilson, vice president of public relations for the CCFR, said that the Liberals have been using and plan to use gun control as a political wedge.
The compliance deadline was originally Apr. 2022 but has now been extended past the next federal election.
“The Liberals have placed politics and division over public safety. No serious observer is surprised at the results,” said Giltaca. “This is not rocket science; any serious expert knows this. At some point in the future, if Canadians want a safer society, they’ll have to reject fantasy ideologies and address the actual problem.”
The attack on legal gun owners will end when the Conservatives are elected, leader Pierre Poilievre previously said.
He said that he would reverse every law that Trudeau implemented to attack legal gun owners.
“We (will) just reverse everything that Trudeau has done,” said Poilievre.
Conservative candidate Ron Chhinzer, a former police officer, mentioned why the Liberals’ plan was illogical.
“Not once in my entire career, not myself or any of my police officer partners, have we ever seized a lawfully-owned firearm from a criminal,” he said at a news conference in June alongside Poilievre.