Photo: The Canadian Press
Doctors and other health workers, pushing for tighter gun laws, are taking part in a demonstration to heal gunshot wounds on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 in Montreal.
Firearms homicides have risen 37 percent in the past 11 years, and pistols have been the most commonly used weapon in such crimes, a Statistics Canada report found, but warns that there are major data gaps.
The report, which looks at trends in gun crime in Canada between 2009 and 2020, was released on Friday.
The proportion of homicides involving firearms increased from 26% in 2013 to 37% in 2020. Pistols were the preferred weapon in 59% of firearms crimes, it added.
“Violent gun crimes typically account for less than three percent of police-reported violent crimes in Canada,” the report said.
“However, it has a significant emotional and physical impact on victims, families and communities. In addition, the rate of violence related to firearms has increased overall in the last few years. “
About six percent of gun crimes involve gang violence, it said.
“Although firearms are present in a small proportion of criminal incidents, the rate of violent firearms-related crimes has increased in recent years.”
An earlier report from Statistics Canada said gun use in violent crime increased by 81 percent from 2009 to 2019.
A July 2021 report by the agency said there were 8,344 victims of violent crime involving the use of weapons.
However, the new report warns that there are gaps in data when using weapons, including the type of firearm, ownership and possession.
“There is no consistent definition of shooting used by police in Canada, nor are there consistent criteria used to assess whether a shooting actually occurred,” it said.
“It is of particular concern that little information is currently available to determine the source of the firearms used in the crime: for example, whether the weapons used in the crime were stolen, illegally purchased or imported into the country. This information is sometimes not recorded by the police for services recorded inconsistently or in some cases the information is simply not available. “
This means that not all weapons are available for tracking, he noted.
According to the report, guns were involved in about 75% of violent robberies and 60% of homicides, other death offenses and attempted murder. Pistols were also involved in 54% of sexual crimes and 51% of violent crimes involving specific firearms in 2020, the report said.
The victims of homicides in 2020 were 743, of whom 277 were killed with weapons, the report said.
In the first year of the pandemic, 8,344 victims of gun crimes fell unchanged from 2019.
The rate of gun crimes in 2020 was highest in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the territories, the report said.
The cities with the highest rates of gun crimes are Regina, Brantford, Ont., Toronto, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Windsor, Ont.
“It is worth noting that Toronto had a relatively low rate of violent gun crimes, but these gun crimes accounted for a relatively high proportion of all violent crimes,” the report said.
Weapons crime, it said, is mostly higher in rural areas than in urban areas, which could be due to a number of reasons, including more firearms possession. Firearms are commonly used in hunting or farming and are around “when a crime is committed,” it said.
About 63% of firearms victims in urban areas have used guns, the report said. In rural areas in the north, there has been a 33% increase in gun crimes over the past six years, it added.
While the rate of gun crime is generally higher in urban than in rural areas, the highest levels of gun crime in Canada have been reported in all-rural North Saskatchewan, and The Northwest Territories, “the report said.
The Canadian Penal Code classifies firearms into three categories: prohibited, restricted and unrestricted.
Prohibited firearms include automatic firearms, cut-off rifles and shotguns. Pistols are limited, while rifles and shotguns, also known as long pistols, are usually not limited.
The law requires a person to have a valid license to possess or possess firearms and purchase ammunition.
The federal government has amended regulations to ban more than 1,500 models of attack-style firearms, especially semi-automatic rifles, after the mass shooting in Nova Scotia in 2020, when a gunman driving a copy of a police vehicle killed 22 people.
Men make up 67 percent of those affected by gun violence, although women are more affected in rural areas, the report said. Most of the victims are between 18 and 24 years old, it added.
The accused is most often unknown in firearms crimes, the report said, although this is less common in rural areas.
“One in four women who were victims of a violent firearms crime in 2020 is the victim of a current or ex-husband or other intimate partner, compared to two percent of men.”
The knowledge gaps identified in the report include the level of involvement of organized crime, which he says is currently unclear.
“Ethnic patterns, indigenous identities – excluding homicide figures – and the socio-economic characteristics of both victims and those accused of firearms violence are also unknown.
The agency said it was working with the Canadian Center for Justice and Public Safety Statistics to obtain uniform data across the country.
“It should be noted that it may take several years for these changes to be fully implemented by the police in a way that allows this information to be reported.
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