Murders Rarely Committed by Legal Firearm Owners: Statistics Canada

Police display seized firearms taken as part of an investigation called Operation Moneypenny in Toronto on April 11, 2023. A cross-border firearms trafficking investigation led to the arrests of 42 people and the seizure of 173 guns, police said. The Canadian Press/Kiernan Green

While the rate of homicides involving a firearm has increased in Canada, those crimes are not usually committed by people who have a licence for the weapon, according to a Statistics Canada report.

“The firearms used in homicides were rarely legal firearms used by their legal owners who were in good standing,” said the report, titled Firearms and Violent Crime in Canada 2022.

Looking at data from 2022, the report found that around half of the firearm-related murders were carried out by those who had obtained the gun legally (58 out of 113 homicides).

“In most firearm-related homicides, the accused did not have a valid firearm licence for the class of firearm used” the report said.

“Among the homicides for which the information was available, the accused had a licence in 13 percent (16 of 119 homicides) of homicides involving a handgun and in 12 percent (7 of 59) of homicides involving a rifle or shotgun.”

In the cases where an illegally obtained weapon was used, most had never been “legally owned” in Canada, StatCan said.

The weapon had been stolen from a legal owner in eight cases. and in five cases it had been illegally purchased from the owner. Forty-eight of the weapons that the police examined were of “unknown origin,” 14 were from the United States, and was one foreign.

Gun Crime on the Rise

Statistics Canada says gun-related violent crimes in 2022 were 8.9 percent higher than the previous year. Police reported about 14,000 violent crimes involving firearms, which is a rate of 36.7 incidents per 100,000 population.

The number represents a “peak” since the data started being collected in 2009, the report said. It’s also the highest rate since 1991.

Ontario and New Brunswick saw the highest increase in violent gun crimes from 2021, up 24 percent in both provinces. B.C. saw one of the highest increases at 12 percent.

In 2013, violent gun crimes were at a low, StatCan said, and all provinces have seen an increase since then, with the highest being the Northwest Territories at a 303 percent increase, Saskatchewan at 165 percent, Yukon at 149 percent, and New Brunswick at 126 percent.

“While the overall increase in the rate of firearm-related violent crime since 2013 was observed less in southern urban areas (+45 percent), some census metropolitan areas saw a relatively significant increase over the past few years,” the report said. “In 10 years, the rate almost quadrupled in Greater Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and Regina.”

Toronto accounted for over half the gun-related violin crimes in Ontario for 2022, the report says. The crimes represented 18 percent of gun violence in Canada. There were 725 more firearm-related violent crimes reported to police than in 2021.

In Vancouver, police saw a 24 percent increase in violent gun crimes compared to 2021.

“However, the rate in 2021 (19.1) was the lowest recorded since 2009 and followed a generally downward trend,” the report stated.

Regina, Saskatchewan, had the highest rate of gun-related violent crime, at 83 incidents per 100,000 population. Violent gun crimes nearly quadrupled in Regina over the last 10 years. Seven percent of violent crime in the city involves guns, Stats Canada said.

The report also found that two-thirds or 69 percent of firearm-related homicide victims were involved with criminal activity, compared with 33 percent of homicide victims where guns were not the weapon.

“In other words, most (82 percent) organized crime-related homicides involved discharging a firearm, and two-thirds (70 percent) of these homicides were committed with a handgun,” it said.

The report notes that crimes involving handguns have increased 50 percent and guns in the “unknown” type of weapon have increased 76 percent since 2013.

StatCan says the types of crimes involving guns that saw an increase were discharging a firearm with intent, using a firearm during the commission of an offence, and pointing a firearm. These crimes increased 120 percent since 2013.

Threats, extortion, or intimidation crimes saw a 93 percent increase, while murder, attempted murder, and other crimes causing death increased 64 percent.

Teen Boys Most Accused of Gun Crime

Boys between 12 and 17 years of age were the ones most likely to be accused of gun-related violent crime in 2022, the report said. They were 18 percent of all accused persons.

Stats Canada says the rate of boys being involved in these crimes has increased by 47 percent since 2012. Men between 18 and 24 accused of violent gun crimes have only increased by four percent since 2012.