We do have a fair amount of gun homicide here in Canada; well above the average in many European countries and about 1/3rd the rate in the United States. But historically this was mostly crimes of passion, and organized crime. Someone would get real angry and kill their lover or business partner, or it would arise out of a dispute over criminal property. We've had spree killings, too.
What happened in Toronto with the death of that boy from a stray bullet in his mother's arms in his own home, is rather novel to Canadians. And I'm not sure what the ultimate effect will be. I'm not sure that gun control can get much more stricter domestically; while most people can buy a handgun in practice, they are heavily regulated such that lawfully licensed ones are only very rarely used in crimes.
The handguns used to murder almost all come from over the border. The way this intersects with the border and US foreign and trade policy re: Canada is hard to avoid. Free exchange with the USA increasingly is seen as a vulnerability.
>The handguns used to murder almost all come from over the border. The way this intersects with the border and US foreign and trade policy re: Canada is hard to avoid. Free exchange with the USA increasingly is seen as a vulnerability.
The elephant in the room...
Where do the people who murder come from? Immigration from certain parts of the world could also be seen as a vulnerability. There is a trend that no one wants to admit, So when you have a certain type of person who is violent and killing people, perhaps it is the type of people we are letting in, they are incompatible with Canadian/Western values.
What are the stats for that? Here in the USA, the overwhelming majority of criminals are native-born citizens. If you have stats that show immigrants are disproportionately the gun-wielding criminals, that'll bolster your argument. Otherwise, that just sounds like Russian talking points.
Well, since you've opened Pandora's box: the highest rate of homicide (by perpetrator) among major ethnic groups in Canada is indigenous. (Also as victims: the child who died in Toronto was indigenous.) There's definitely something going on there with that statistic, but it's not because of immigration.
It's unfortunately true in southern Ontario, too. Indigenous people make up about 3% of Ontario's population, and they make up 20% of the population in provincial jails. The large disparity is also seen in Toronto, but since indigenous people are less than 1% of the population of Toronto, it doesn't show up so much in absolute terms.
What happened in Toronto with the death of that boy from a stray bullet in his mother's arms in his own home, is rather novel to Canadians. And I'm not sure what the ultimate effect will be. I'm not sure that gun control can get much more stricter domestically; while most people can buy a handgun in practice, they are heavily regulated such that lawfully licensed ones are only very rarely used in crimes.
The handguns used to murder almost all come from over the border. The way this intersects with the border and US foreign and trade policy re: Canada is hard to avoid. Free exchange with the USA increasingly is seen as a vulnerability.
The elephant in the room...
Where do the people who murder come from? Immigration from certain parts of the world could also be seen as a vulnerability. There is a trend that no one wants to admit, So when you have a certain type of person who is violent and killing people, perhaps it is the type of people we are letting in, they are incompatible with Canadian/Western values.
A quick look at the table https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7242a4.htm shows that the issue is not guns but a something else. This is corroborated by quite low gun crime rates in areas with lots of guns but …: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/state-stats/deaths/firearms.html vs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...