Data from Greater Toronto Area police indicates a disturbing trend: the overwhelming majority of seized crime guns are sourced from the United States. In 2024, 88% of the 717 firearms seized by Toronto Police were traced back to the U.S. Other regions reflect a similar pattern, with York Regional Police and Durham Regional Police reporting high percentages of U.S.-sourced guns. Police authorities express significant concern over the uptick in illegal firearms, which are often involved in serious offenses such as home invasions and carjackings, indicating a shift towards more common encounters with these weapons during routine patrols.
These weapons are being used in the type of offences that are really harming our community, such as home invasions, carjackings and commercial robberies.
When I began, if an illegal firearm or if any firearm was seized as part of a crime, it was a conversation piece...But we are seeing them with such regularity that it's become commonplace.
Most often not it's a regular traffic stop that they're coming upon these individuals. This is quite scary and is a threat to our public safety.
It's something that, definitely, we are beginning to see an uptick in and creates a tremendous amount of concern because the reality is these are tools of violence.
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