The firearms used in homicides in Canada in 2022 were seldom legal ones used by their legal owners who were in good standing, according to a report conducted by Statistics Canada. Of the 113 firearm-related homicides in 2022 for which information is known, 58 of them had been obtained legally, according to the report. Statistics Canada said rifles or shotguns (58%) were more likely to be of legal origin than handguns (49%). Among incidents in which the firearm had been obtained legally, the accused was the legal firearm owner in 24 of cases. When it came to the 49 incidents where the firearms were obtained illegally and for which information was known, Statistics Canada said they had been stolen from legal owners in 49 cases and purchased from them in five of them. It added 36 involved illegal firearms. Of these 36 illegal firearms, 20 were sent for tracing. Six of them were American and 14 had an unknown origin. In total, 79 firearms were sent for tracing, including those that turned out to be legal. Of these firearms, 16 were Canadian, 14 were American, one was foreign and 48 were unknown. In most firearms-related homicides, Statistics Canada found the accused did not have a valid firearms licence for the class used. Among the homicides for which information was available, it said the accused had a licence in 16 of the 119 homicides involving a handgun and in seven of 59 involving a rifle or shotgun. This report comes after the Alberta government said in 2022 it will explore all available options to take action against the Canadian government’s gun grab.READ MORE: Alberta's government says feds clearly seeking to ban legal firearm ownership altogether“The amendments target more than two million licensed Canadian firearms owners, including hunters, farmers and target shooters who collectively own hundreds of thousands of firearms that could soon be prohibited,” said former Alberta justice minister and attorney general Tyler Shandro. Through last-minute amendments to Bill C-21, the Canadian government moved to ban hundreds of new models of legal rifles and shotguns.The report was conducted using data from Statistics Canada’s uniform crime reporting and homicide surveys. It was produced with funding from Public Safety Canada.
