February 14, 2025
Toronto doesn't have a gun-control problem
Gun control is functioning well in Canada. Solutions to shootings in our big cities lie elsewhere.
Gun control is functioning well in Canada. Solutions to shootings in our big cities lie elsewhere.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Toronto on Tuesday. He met with Mayor John Tory and said his government would have more to say about gun control as part of its election campaign. This is after a recent spate of shootings in the city. Up until a few weeks ago, shootings in Toronto had actually been trending down, after a very bloody 2018. The recent series of incidents has erased that decline. The city now has more shootings this year than it did at this time last year (these figures come from the Toronto Police Service, and are current to Monday of this week). Interestingly, it has fewer dead — but shootings themselves are up.

What the Liberals intend to propose during this fall’s election is anyone’s guess. A crackdown on certain kinds of rifles is expected — likely “assault rifles,” in the common parlance, though that term hardly applies in Canada, where true military-style firearms have long been almost totally banned. But the Liberals have gently backed away from the notion of a full handgun ban; as I’ve written here previously, it would be a political winner for them, but they seem to have rightly concluded after a long public consultation that it wouldn’t make an impact on shootings in Toronto or Canada more broadly.

“We look forward to the very next time Parliament is sitting,” Trudeau said at his meeting with Tory, “hopefully under a Liberal government, where we will be able to introduce further measures to strengthen measures against guns.” So, stay tuned, I guess.

But, as ever, the problem remains obvious. It’s not the collectors and target shooters who comply with Canada’s generally strict gun control laws. It’s criminals. And we were reminded of that this week and last. We should listen.

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See Also:

(1) Chief targets gun-toting thugs with new plan

(2) ‘Naive’: Police chiefs say handgun ban won’t stop flow of weapons into Canada

(3) Ontario government to regulate ABA, the therapy used to treat children with autism

(4) Ontario man jailed 35 years for role in biggest child porn ring

(5) Ontario’s gas-pump stickers attacking Ottawa’s carbon pricing are on the way