June 2026
Re: “Smuggled guns are a problem. Domestic guns are a bigger one. Both require action,” (Ken Price and Heidi Rathjen, The Hamilton Spectator, 17 June 2026):
Has the RCMP debunked the gun smuggling myth? Not according to Halton Regional Police and Peel Regional Police, the latter of whom recently reported a seizure rate 90% rate of guns of American origin in their jurisdiction.
The writers argue that the RCMP have stated that 80% of seized firearms were of domestic origin, but they undermine their overall argument that American-sourced guns aren’t the problem by stating that 90% of seized firearms in Toronto were indeed American. Of course, the RCMP are citing national statistics, but failure to acknowledge the local stats is foolish and dishonest.
Thus, I agree with the writers that we need some honest accounting. I also agree that both domestic and smuggled guns are a problem.
Further, since the writers make note of “assault weapons,” could they give me a definition of an “assault weapon”? As best as I can determine, most gun control advocates define an “assault weapon” as a weapon that looks scary; nothing more. For those who are unaware, there are many rifles that have greater firepower than the scary looking “assault weapons.” They just don’t look scary.
The writers also state “Banning military-style weapons and large capacity magazines will reduce mass shootings.” Well firstly, “military-style” weapons, also known as fully-automatic rifles, have been banned in Canada since 1978, and high-capacity centre-fire magazines have been prohibited since 1991. Secondly, no bans and prohibitions stopped Nova Scotia mass shooter Gabriel Wartman.
By the way, three of the guns Wartman possessed the day of his rampage were smuggled into Canada from America and none of his guns were legally possessed, so there’s that too! That leads to another very uncomfortable truth for gun control advocates: criminals by their very nature, don’t care about any laws or prohibitions, which is what makes them criminals.
A more recent example is the male accused in the shooting of a plainclothes Peel Regional Police officer on 21 June. Isaiah Bachoo was “…subject to multiple court-ordered firearms prohibitions stemming from previous firearm-related convictions in Thunder Bay in 2023, including a lifetime prohibition from possessing prohibited or restricted firearms, prohibited devices and ammunition, as well as a 10-year prohibition from possessing any firearm,” according to a police press release. None of those prohibitions prevented Bachoo from shooting a police officer. Being in prison for a long time may have done more than prohibition could ever accomplish, but I digress.
I’m certainly not saying that we shouldn’t have any laws related to gun ownership and possession, but let’s not delude ourselves into believing the only solution is to ban firearms. All you have to do is look at Toronto to see how the restricted use and possession of handguns in Canada hasn’t made any difference in stopping gang-related shootings.
The writers also proclaim that “Critics say banning assault weapons won’t stop cross-border trafficking.” I am one of those critics and I agree. Stricter enforcement and very harsh sentences for those who smuggle firearms would be much, much more effective than a prohibition.
Lastly, despite what many people think, an AR-15 is NOT a “military-grade” rifle, so let’s debunk that myth, shall we? Yes, I know it’s the civilian version of the M-16 rifle, which has a fully-automatic function, and it looks scary, but the AR-15 is only semi-automatic. Ukraine proved it’s not a “military-grade” rifle by refusing to accept the AR-15 rifles that we tried to send them from those that had been surrendered by Canadian owners. Ukraine turned us down as no army would ever want to go into battle armed with an AR-15, unless there were no other options, which there are.
Let’s get our priorities straight.
Sources: https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/smuggled-guns-are-a-problem-domestic-guns-are-a-bigger-one/article_cda96403-6171-5aa9-877c-ad9a066e14da.html, Most traced crime guns sourced within Canada, RCMP reports say – National | Globalnews.ca, History of firearms in Canada | Royal Canadian Mounted Police, New documents detail the guns — all illegally obtained — used by Canada’s worst mass murderer | National Post.
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The original column that inspired my column.
Opinion | Smuggled guns are a problem. Domestic guns are a bigger one. Both require action.
The RCMP has done its part to debunk the smuggling myth. Now we need an honest accounting.
June 17, 2026
By Ken Price and Heidi Rathjen
Ken Price is a co-founder of Danforth Families for Safe Communities, a grassroots gun control organization founded by families and survivors of the 2018 Danforth Avenue mass shooting in Toronto. Heidi Rathjen is a witness of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre and co-ordinator of PolySeSouvient, a gun control advocacy organization founded by survivors of the tragedy.
For years, after every shooting, the same voices pushed the same script: The vast majority of crime guns are smuggled across the border, so the only fix is tighter border controls.
That narrative was always flawed. Now it is indefensible.
New RCMP data obtained by The Canadian Press regarding all crime guns traced in 2024 confirms what gun control advocates have said for years: The vast majority (80 per cent) of firearms recovered from crime scenes and traced by the RCMP are domestically sourced. Only 20 per cent were smuggled into Canada. Just four per cent were linked to organized crime — and of those, 80 per cent were domestic.
In other words, most crime guns begin on the shelves of a licensed dealer, only to be straw-purchased (when a licence holder buys a gun for someone unlicensed), stolen, legally or illegally resold, or misused by their legal owner.
Yet the “it’s all smuggled guns” line was repeated by gun lobbyists and their political allies until it became the dominant message in the media.
For years, that narrative has been a permission slip for many politicians to curry favour with the gun lobby, by undermining controls on the legal market — like banning handguns and assault-weapons. If the problem is “over there,” why do anything “over here”?
No more excuses.
The federal prohibition on assault weapons, announced in May 2020 after the Nova Scotia massacre, has been on the books, in some form, for more than six years. The compensation program is still being rolled out. But the ban is incomplete. The Soviet SKS rifle remains legal and unrestricted, despite being the model most often used in mass shootings and the murder of police officers. And the government just pushed back the deadline, for a fourth time, to remove prohibited weapons from circulation.
Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba oppose the ban and buyback program, citing smuggled guns. Three of these provinces are preparing to intervene at the Supreme Court in support of the challenge seeking to invalidate the government’s authority to ban certain types of dangerous weapons. These provincial interventions go against the values of most Canadians who reject U.S.-style gun culture and expect their governments to spend taxpayer money upholding the law to strengthen public safety — not fighting it in court alongside the gun lobby that wants to make military-style weapons legal again.
Critics say banning assault weapons won’t stop cross-border trafficking. They are right, and no serious advocate has argued otherwise. Stronger border enforcement, deeper co-operation with U.S. authorities and greater investment in police operations are what’s needed to stem the flow, especially to Toronto, where American-sourced handguns make up nine in 10 of seized crime guns.
But mass shootings typically involve legal guns. This is not complicated. Banning military-style weapons and large capacity magazines will reduce mass shootings. Ottawa needs to deliver fully, not delay or backtrack to placate the loudest voices in the room. It should immediately end new purchases of the SKS and follow through on commitments to eliminate loopholes that allow legal access to high-capacity magazines.
Bill C-21 received royal assent in December 2023, yet key measures to remove firearms from domestic abusers are still not in force, two and a half years later. We need firm timelines, not press releases.
The handgun freeze, codified in C-21, needs regulations to close the “Olympic exemption” which has allowed B.C. to exempt 45 times more would-be Olympic athletes (per capita) than Quebec. (Elite sports target shooters and coaches who meet specific criteria can apply for the exemption in order to acquire handguns.) Over 1,000 handguns are lost or stolen every year. Only 10 per cent are recovered.
The RCMP has done its part to debunk the smuggling myth, giving Canadians new and robust evidence, data that forces an honest accounting: a country where most crime guns are domestically sourced is a country whose domestic laws matter — a lot.
The key question now is whether the Carney government will deliver on Liberal commitments to quickly complete and implement key outstanding gun control measures, or whether it will let gun lobby false rhetoric — that “blames the border” — further weaken or delay these critical reforms.
