r/canadaguns • u/Mysterious_Sleep7443 • Aug 03 '26
News / Politics / Activism Inside Toronto's Illegal Handgun Market
https://youtu.be/MJcbiCvwoz0?si=_CpdpwRhZbIsTN8P
How are U.S. handguns flooding Toronto streets? Christina Howarn follows the money, the routes, and the victims to expose a cross-border pipeline hiding in plain sight.
In this VeraCity: Special Investigations report, we begin at King and Dufferin with grieving mother Evelyn Fox, whose son Kissinger was shot in Liberty Village in 2016 while trying to break up a fight. As Toronto averages more than 400 shootings a year and gun-related murders rose 20% in 2019, the investigation asks: where are the guns coming from, and who benefits?
Inside Toronto Police Guns and Gangs, Inspector Joe Matthews shows seized weapons from a Tek-9 with an over-capacity magazine to modified handguns and sawed-off shotguns. He details Project Patton’s single seizure of 60 handguns and confirms handguns are the weapon of choice because they are easier to conceal. From a jailhouse interview, Dwayne Beckford bluntly says finding a gun in Toronto “is not hard at all,” describing how even kids can access firearms and the human cost of that culture.
To contrast the illegal stream, range owner J.R. Cox walks through Canada’s licensing, mandatory safety training, and daily CPIC checks of 2.2 million legal owners, arguing that licensed owners are not the drivers of street shootings. Then Detective Scott Ferguson, who traces crime guns for Criminal Intelligence Services Ontario, explains how ballistics and social media tie cases together. He cites a gun that linked the killing of a 16-year-old in London, Ontario to the death of a 12-year-old girl in Toronto, and a joint ATF-Toronto case that uncovered four buyers who smuggled 120 handguns from Michigan. Ferguson says 70 to 80 percent of Ontario crime handguns come from the U.S., where a $199 pistol can fetch over $5,000 in Canada.
Cybercrime expert Dr. Thomas Holt outlines the smaller scale of dark web gun markets, while Anonymous Pug demonstrates why Bitcoin is private but traceable, and why most criminals still prefer cash. A former smuggler known as “the Captain” shows how guns are hidden in car doors, estimating up to a dozen per truck with big markups, before reflecting on the real-world harm. Ex-gang leader Marcel Wilson describes $80 gun “rentals,” border vulnerabilities, and why solutions must include border resources and deep community investment.
Watch the full investigation for rare on-camera access, hard numbers, and first-hand accounts that reveal how U.S. guns reach Toronto and what it will take to stop them.
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u/Big-Guitar-1979 Aug 03 '26
$199 resale for more than $5000? Come on Canadians 🤦
I don’t know these criminals are such rich.
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u/hunterofsteelhead Aug 03 '26
Some of them might be paying that but if your people come back with 40 handguns they are probally selling it for under 1k something like 500 to people they know
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u/julienjj Aug 03 '26
Per some police statement they are appently very cheap, otherwise young criminals wouldn't have them.
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u/ActCompetitive1171 Aug 03 '26
Criminals apparently rent them for specific use cases.
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u/AssignmentPutrid3197 Aug 03 '26
Its easy as hell for scumbags to steal a grand or 2 a day from LCBO with almost 0% chance of getting arrested.
Not hard for anyone dealing drugs to get 5k together
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u/Barbarian_818 Aug 03 '26
Back in my youth, the trappings of violence were almost a job requirement for drug dealers and career criminals. I assume that is still true today.
Sometimes that was firearms or large edged weapons, sometimes it was just a big dog trained to be vicious. Whatever it was, that rep as a dangerous man was a crucial part of their security.
If you weren't dangerous, you were setting yourself up to get robbed. Quite likely by your own customers. At the distribution level, if you weren't seen as violent or potentially violent, you were setting yourself up to have your territory taken over by someone who is violent.
With that as a foundation, having a lot of guns becomes an important status symbol. A dealer who can afford multiple smuggled weapons is a dealer who is making bank. A dealer with multiple weapons is a dealer you don't want to cross unless you're willing to get into open warfare.
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u/Jman4647 Aug 04 '26
So, because it's a job requirement, I imagine these illegal handguns are tax deductible?
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u/Barbarian_818 Aug 04 '26
Heh. Might as well apply for one of those small business start up grants too!
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u/jbouit494hg Aug 03 '26
These people are allowed to walk around downtown shooting at each other with full auto Glocks with switches and face minimal consequences if caught.
Meanwhile law abiding gun owners have to submit 6 months of formal training records to apply for an exemption letter to buy a single .22, and the process to be allowed to carry it even in the remote wilderness is functionally impossible even if you have a legitimate need.
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u/ShooterSteveYYC Aug 03 '26
I though this was a serious piece unit I got to the JR Cox part. His inclusion completely removes all credibility.
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u/coniferslav Aug 03 '26
Wait was the issue with him? I follow him on instagram and he seems decent enough. Don't know much about him besides he owned Sterling.
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u/DFA_Wildcat Aug 03 '26
I have to spit everytime I hear that losers name. That whole Sig rifle thing left a sour taste in my mouth for eternity.
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u/escv_69420 Aug 07 '26
HOW!?!? How the fuck does that fucking guy manage to show up in every single media piece about firearms and kook it all up.
I was watching a thing about neat new UK legal firearms coming to market, and all of a sudden JR just like, fucking Cosmo Kramers into frame and starts talking about how he's also willing to do a special Canadian version (it was an ugly as sin Glock mag 9mm lever gun) for the right price. Like wtf? I'm watching UK gun news and this guy shows up to ruin it.
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u/pahtee_poopa Aug 03 '26
Funny thing is all the previously legal firearms owners being grouped and potentially charged similar to these numbnuts
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u/ShiftyActuall Aug 03 '26
They aren’t wrong. Hell I got tested the other day.
Was at a festival in Toronto. Middle eastern kid approached me and my buddy for a lighter. We start shooting the shit over a cigarette, and mid conversation this complete stranger is offering to sell us a beretta for $400.
This was completely unsolicited , he was just a little play-gangster kid that seemingly wanted to make some money. Who knows maybe it was a scam.
We had a laugh and said no, we’re good. But thought that was pretty wild.
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u/Jman4647 Aug 05 '26
I know someone who would have to pause and wonder for a moment...
Because an offer like that would be that person's only opportunity to own a pistol in this country.
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u/escv_69420 Aug 07 '26
Dude, what kind of "Beretta" is worth $400 street price!? A Taurus that lived on the bottom of the ocean for a decade?
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u/hectop20 Aug 03 '26
There was an interview on CFRB 1010 a few years ago where a reporter that had some street relations was able to arrange for a (proposed) handgun purchase in about 2 hours. He said he never went through with it. While there, the merchant offered him some hand grenades as well.
As I recall the police were never informed about the contacts. (Have to protect your sources I guess)
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u/hunterofsteelhead Aug 03 '26
And thats for an outsider. People that live in the hood have options on the table constantly. Handguns are being smuggled in by the trunk load so its seemingly a neverending supply its not like there is a shortage. Cops find them 24/7 and doesnt affect the exchange of gunfire at all.
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u/Eglitarian Aug 05 '26
If OP’a cited source is right and they’re selling for $5000 a pop on a $200 gun, the 2400% markup has got to be pretty enticing for a lot of people willing to risk it. People go to greater lengths to smuggle drugs with a lower return.
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u/Barbarian_818 Aug 03 '26
It's easy to convince someone that we need more gun control when they have no idea how much gun control we already have.
And people tend to trust a politician who says the legislation they craft will combat the problem that is in the public mind.
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u/Fast_pumpkin_seed Aug 04 '26
Imagine.....when this was a known issue in the 80's.....the answer then would have been easy......for anyone caught......thirty years in jail.....and actually do it.....would have immidiately scared alot of people from doing it and out of the business.......and thirty years for discharge within city limits......but they wanted the guns to flood us and wanted the chaos......thats why absolutely nothing was done to scare people into not importing........tje powers that be wanted all of this......for 40 years i have wondered why they ignored puttimg any effective sentencing in place on this issue
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u/ConstructionOk4528 Aug 03 '26
My brother told me he can get a handgun for 200 you just got to know the right plugs the cheaper it is the more bodies it has
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u/Teckiiiz Aug 03 '26
Wait.. the criminals don't obey the goofy fuckin handgun "freeze"?
GASP