Lax U.S. gun laws are flooding Canada’s black market for firearms.
Driving the news: A surge in gun-related crimes across Canada can be traced to a spike in the number of firearms being smuggled across the U.S. border, according to a New York Times analysis.
In Ontario, 91% of handguns recovered from crimes last year came in illegally from the U.S.
Smugglers bring guns in on drones, boats, and have even used a library on the border of Quebec and Vermont as a drop location. Police say U.S. firearms are selling on the Canadian black market for as much as eight times their value.
Why it matters: The influx of American firearms has coincided with a rise in gun violence across the country. The frequency of gun-related deaths in Canada has jumped ~90% over the past decade, even after adjusting for population growth.
Canada’s overall homicide rate has started to fall in the past couple of years after spiking during the pandemic, but is still above the average of the past 25 years.
Bottom line: The effectiveness of Canada’s relatively strict gun control laws will always be limited if large numbers of illegal guns can be easily smuggled into the country from the U.S.—LA