In my teens and twenties, I was a gun owner. I would hunt legally, and target shoot until I was in my twenties.
Historically, in Canada, gun crime in the 1960’s was by contrast to today, a fraction of what it now is.
While almost everyone that I knew in my youth, we all owed guns. And as a military cadet and then reservist with the military, I regularly practiced my marksmanship at a government military range outside my prairie city.
Today, there is tremendous hype by some politicians in Canada about the dangers of ‘violent crime’, supposedly induced by those who own guns.
This is, without equivocation, a blatant lie.
Inducing fear to support an agenda is crass and idiotic.
In fact, violent crime using guns, within the group of Canadians who are legal gun owners, is extremely low.
“A recent Statistics Canada report confirms that people with unregistered firearms are responsible for the majority of gun-related crime in Canada. This should also be a wakeup call for the federal government, which has been unfairly targeting legitimate firearm owners through gun control legislation.
Firearms and Violent Crime in Canada, 2022 covers various aspects of Canada’s justice system. It notes that the rate of firearm-related violent crime in Canada reached a 14 year high in 2022, with police services reporting nearly 14,000 firearm related crimes.
The report also highlights that in most firearm-related homocides, the accused did not possess a valid license for the specific class of firearm used.
“Among homocides where information was available, the accused has a license in only 13% involving handguns and 12% involving rifles or shotguns,” it states.
The vast majority of guns used in violent crimes in Canada come directly from the United States, and are smuggled into Canada.
As a legal gun owner, let’s focus on the ‘problem’, which is not gun ownership.
The 26 percent of Canadians who own guns, are not the problem.
According to StatsCan 2022;
“Of particular concern, there is currently little information available to determine the source of firearms used in crime; for example, whether a gun used in a crime was stolen, illegally purchased or smuggled into the country. StatsCanada adds, “This information is sometimes not even recorded by police services, recorded inconsistently or, in some cases, the information is simply not available.”
Here are a few facts about guns seized in Canada.
“Recent data indicates that a large portion, ranging from 70% to 90% of crime guns seized by Canadian police originate from the U.S.”.
The CBC, on February 24th, 2025 reported;
“While the U.S. President Donald Trump claims Canada hasn’t done enough to stop the flow of illegal migrants and fentanyl south, (even though less than 1% of both of these problems emanate from Canada as indicated by the U.S. Border Patrol itself), data from the Greater Toronto Area’s police forces shows American guns are being used as tools of crime and violence this side of the border.
In 2024, 88 percent of the 717 crime guns seized by the Toronto Police Services were traced to the United States.”
So, enough of the rhetoric and leaving the impression that somehow gun owners are the problem in Canada. We have very strict regulations on the registry, transportation, storage and use of firearms in this country, and those of us who own guns are absolutely NOT THE PROBLEM.
Guns coming into this country illegally from the U.S. into the hands of criminals and gangs, are.
“The rate of hangun-related violent crime declined 8.6%, from 20 incidents per 100,000 population in 2022 to 18 in 2023. Firearm-related violent crime involving rifles and shotguns decreased by 4.0% from 5.9% to 5.6%.
The number of homocides in 1973 by guns, was higher per capita than it is today, yet gun owners are being targeted, unfairly. And for the most of the last 40 years, gun-related homocides in Canada were actually lower.
Again, according to Canadian Police Services the increase in gun violence is related to the illegal entry of weapons from the United States getting into the hands of criminals and gangs in Canada.
A simple yet highly effective means of dealing with violent crimes with guns would be to create mandatory sentences that are ‘harsh’ by anyones standard.
A mandatory 10 years without parole for any crime using a gun, and for capital crimes, a mandatory 25 years to life, without parole for anyone using a gun in the commission of a crime.
Stop targeting those of us who are not the problem, and start ‘putting away’ for long periods of time, those who are.
Stopping the rhetoric and outright alarmist bullshit in relation to gun ownership in Canada by all parties would be a fantastic start.
Truth matters, statistics matter.
Bullshit doesn’t.
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