r/canadaguns • u/AutoModerator • Jun 08 '26
Recurring Canadaguns Politics and Debate Thread
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u/Natural_Comparison21 Jun 11 '26
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/06/11/most-crime-guns-traced-by-rcmp-came-from-within-canada-internal-reports-say/ Well this source is accurate I would say what it's missing is severe context. Let's look at some of the numbers and wording.
" The vast majority of crime guns traced by the RCMP to identifiable sources in 2023 and 2024 came from within Canada and were not smuggled from abroad, say internal reports prepared by the national police force." So right away they are already laying out a very firm statement of most crime guns traced by the RCMP to identifiable sources in 2023 and 2024 came from within Canada. However think about the language they use for a minute in that sentence as it will be important later.
"In 2024, the RCMP centre completed 6,951 firearm traces. Of these, 4,197 were identified as crime guns — 2,814 of which had a known source." So of 6,951 seized firearms 4,197 were identified as crime guns and of that entire number if I am interpreting this right either only 67.04% of all those seized firearms traced had a known source or if it's saying that 2,814 number is for total firearm traces then it's 40.48% or not even half. Either way in both cases a sizeable percentage of firearms they are not able to get a identifiable source and on top of that this is just talking about firearms that were traced. Not total seizures of firearms. On top of THAT this is only RCMP data and doesn't account for provincial police tracing programs. So while this data does point out some interesting highlights you have to really read the fine print. Which a lot of people aren't going to.
"The centre reports that 71 per cent of those firearms traced in 2024 were domestically sourced long guns, 17 per cent were smuggled handguns, nine per cent were domestically sourced handguns and two per cent were smuggled long guns. A small number of firearms were not categorized as either long guns or handguns." This part is even less surprising especially for the long guns. As think about it this way. If you are a cop and you seize a long gun that still has a intact serial number that's going to be of interest to you. As there is a solid chance it could show up domestically and you are more willing to trace it as you might be able to with a bit of luck figure out who bought it from what store and you might be able to lay another charge. That would 100% get you some brownie points at work. Compared to a short barreled handgun that never was legal to be sold in Canada where unless you are doing a major investigation makes very little point in seizing. The long guns would be low hanging fruit to trace. What's most interesting however is the percentage of domestically sourced handguns. Which comes up depending on how one reads the data in this as the wording is strange (or I am just dumb.) is that there are anywhere between 626 at the high end to 254 at the low end domestically sourced handguns.
"Sixty-seven of the crime gun traces in 2024 turned up privately manufactured firearms, sometimes called homemade “ghost guns.” This was just a interesting bit of information to add. So 0.96% of all firearm seizures had a homemade gun. Which is wild as while I do say that homemade guns are fairly rare in Canada to be at nearly 1% is quite something.
"The reports point out that the analyses, which include only traces by the RCMP centre, are not representative of the total number of gun traces in Ontario and Quebec — provinces that have their own tracing agencies." Now this is the quote here that I think matters most. Some of the two most populated provinces in Canada which as of looking this up make up 61.43% of the Canadian population they don't trace that many guns in. So with that alone one could point out how this data is flawed and is not getting the big picture.
Now I can comment on more of this article but that would make this already long ramble longer so I am going to stop on this paragraph. What I will say is I find it funny how a supposed academic like Blake Brown is trying to shoe horn his way into this discussion with pretty much a glorified "Gotcha." moment.