Photo: The Canadian Press
Doctors and other health care workers pushing for tougher gun laws are taking part in a rally on the treatment of gunshot wounds on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 in Montreal.
Gun-related homicides have risen 37 percent in the past 11 years, and guns were the most widely used weapon in these crimes, according to a Statistics Canada report, but warns that there are major data gaps. in gathering information.
The report analyzing trends in gun crime in Canada between 2009 and 2020 was released on Friday.
The proportion of homicides where a firearm was used increased from 26% in 2013 to 37% in 2020, he said. Guns were the weapon of choice in 59 percent of gun crimes, he added.
“Violent gun-related offenses typically account for less than three per cent of violent offenses reported by police in Canada,” the report said.
“However, it has a significant emotional and physical impact on victims, families and communities. In addition, rates of gun-related violence have seen a general increase in recent years.”
About six percent of gun crimes were related to gang violence, he said.
“While firearms are present in a minority of criminal incidents, the rate of violent gun-related crimes has increased in recent years.”
An earlier report from Statistics Canada said that the use of weapons in violent crime increased by 81% between 2009 and 2019.
A July 2021 report from the agency said there were 8,344 victims of violent crime where weapons were used.
The new report warned, however, that there are gaps in the data where weapons are used, including the type of firearms, ownership and storage.
“There is no consistent definition of a shooting applied by police services in Canada, nor are consistent criteria used to assess whether a shooting actually took place,” he said.
“Of particular concern, there is currently little information available to determine the source of the firearms used in a crime: for example, whether a weapon used in a crime was stolen, bought illegally or smuggled into the country. This information is sometimes not recorded by the police, services, inconsistently recorded or, in some cases, simply not available.
That means not all weapons are available for tracking, he noted.
According to the report, guns were involved in approximately 75% of violent robberies and 60% of homicides, other rapes that resulted in death and attempted murder. Guns were also implicated in 54% of sex crimes and 51% of specific violent gun crimes in 2020, according to the report.
In 2020, there were 743 homicide victims, of whom 277 were killed with a handgun, according to the report.
The first year of the pandemic saw 8,344 victims of gun crimes, which is unchanged from 2019, he said.
Arms crime rates in 2020 were highest in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the territories, he said.
The cities with the highest proportions of gun crimes were Regina, Brantford, Ontario, Toronto, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Windsor, Ontario.
“It is worth noting that Toronto had a relatively low rate of violent gun-related crimes, but these gun-related crimes accounted for a relatively high proportion of all violent crimes,” the report said.
Gun crimes, he said, were mostly higher in rural areas than in urban areas, which can be attributed to several reasons, such as more possession of firearms. Firearms are generally used for hunting or farming and are found “when an offense is committed,” he said.
About 63 percent of gun victims in urban areas had guns, according to the report. The rural north has seen a 33 percent increase in gun crimes over the past six years, he added.
“While gun crime rates were generally higher in urban areas than in rural areas, the highest rates of handgun crime in Canada were in northern Saskatchewan, which it’s all rural, and in the Northwest Territories, ”he said.
The Canada Penal Code classifies firearms into three categories: prohibited, restricted and unrestricted.
Prohibited firearms include automatic firearms, cut rifles and shotguns. Pistols are restricted, while rifles and shotguns, also known as long pistols, are not usually restricted.
The law requires a person to have a valid license to own or possess a firearm and purchase ammunition.
The federal government amended regulations to ban more than 1,500 models of assault firearms, especially semi-automatic rifles, following the Nova Scotia massacre in 2020, in which a gunman driving a police vehicle replica killed 22 people .
Men accounted for 67% of those affected by armed violence, although women were more affected in rural areas, he said. Most of the victims were between 18 and 24 years old, he added.
The accused is more often a stranger to gun crimes, according to the report, although this was less common in rural areas.
“One in four women who were victims of a violent gun-related crime in 2020 was the victim of a current or former spouse or other intimate partner, compared to two percent of men.”
The knowledge gaps identified in the report also included the scope of the involvement of organized crime, which is currently unclear.
“Patterns of ethnicity, indigenous identity, with the exception of homicide data, and the socioeconomic characteristics of both victims and people accused of gun-related violence are also unknown.”
The agency said it is working with the Canadian Center for Justice and Community Security Statistics to obtain uniform data across the country.
“It should be noted that these changes may take several years for the police services to be fully implemented so that this information can be reported.”