Most traced crime guns sourced within Canada, RCMP reports say

Internal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reports reveal that the vast majority of crime guns traced in 2023 and 2024 were sourced domestically, rather than being smuggled into Canada from other countries. These findings offer new insights into the origins of firearms used in criminal activities across the country.

Analyses from the RCMP's Canadian National Firearms Tracing Centre and Criminal Firearms Strategic and Operational Support Services indicate that almost all traced long guns and a substantial portion of handguns involved in crimes originated within Canada. In 2024, the RCMP completed 6,951 firearm traces, identifying 4,197 as crime guns, with 2,814 having a known source. Of these, 71 percent were domestically sourced long guns, while 17 percent were smuggled handguns and 9 percent were domestically sourced handguns.

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The analyses found almost all of the long guns traced, and a substantial number of the handguns, were domestically sourced.

The reports, obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act, also highlighted the presence of privately manufactured firearms, often referred to as 'ghost guns.' In 2024, 67 crime gun traces involved such firearms. Semi-automatic weapons were identified as the most common type among the traced firearms where the source and action type were known.

The RCMP defines crime guns broadly, including firearms used in criminal offenses, those with altered serial numbers, found firearms not reported lost or stolen, and replicas or toy guns used in crimes. While organized crime links were found in 4 percent of 2024 traces (184 firearms), the majority of these were also domestically sourced. It is important to note that these RCMP-specific analyses may not represent the total number of gun traces in provinces like Ontario and Quebec, which maintain their own tracing agencies.

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Seventy-one per cent of those firearms traced in 2024 were domestically sourced long guns, 17 per cent were smuggled handguns, nine per cent were domestically sourced handguns and two per cent were smuggled long guns.