Toronto police chief Mark Saunders delivered the service’s year-end review Friday morning with news that the overwhelming majority of guns used in crime were illegally smuggled from the United States..“When it comes to the handguns, I believe, 82 per cent – give or take – of the ‘crime guns’ in the city are coming from the United States.” .“Crime guns” are those weapons retrieved during or after the commission of a crime..The federal government does not release statistics on the proportion of smuggled and illegal guns used in crime..The Liberals came under fire from critics after they announced an election promise to ban “military assault weapons” (which have been banned since the 1960s) and potentially allow municipalities to ban handguns. Andrew Scheer called instead for targeted action toward gangs..In 2018, the City of Toronto had 428 shooting incidents. 464 incidents have been reported thus far in 2019..“If we’re still arresting people with guns, that means there are still some access points. We make the apprehensions, we learn things through intelligence, there’s new sophisticated ways in which guns do come into the city,” Saunders said..In August, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police said they would not support handgun bans as the weapons used most often in crimes are possessed illegally; and the law covers that already. They called the notion of banning something that is already illegal “naive”..Toronto Mayor John Tory and Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart have both publicly called for handgun bans. While shooting incidents have increased in Toronto, Vancouver had less than 20 reports of “shots fired” last year, and gun-related homicides have not been higher than 19 annually since 2009. Toronto had 96 gun-related deaths in 2018..Over the summer, Toronto police received a pledge of $4.5 million from the municipal, provincial and federal governments for crime reduction initiatives. Saunders said the money would go to fund the Integrated Gang and Gun Task Force and “target street gangs”.
