Canada's handgun import ban takes effect with eyes on effectiveness

TRENTON, Canada

Canada's ban on the importing of handguns took effect Friday but whether it will keep criminals' trigger fingers off the lethal weapons is open to question.

The move is among the measures that target firearms control, including a ban on gun licenses for those who commit domestic violence or criminal harassment, and raising the penalty for gun smuggling and trafficking to 14 years from 10.

It follows a huge increase in the estimated number of handguns in Canada, to about 1.1 million in 2020, an increase of 71% from 2010.

"The total universe of handguns has exploded," Public Safety Minister Marc Mendicino said in an interview with national news agency The Canadian Press. "And at the same time, we've seen handgun violence go through the roof. That is not a coincidence - there is a correlation between those two trends."

Statistics Canada reported in July 2021 that guns were used in 8,344 instances of violent crimes.

But not everyone agrees that the ban will cap the number of handguns.

Toronto is the largest city in Canada and fourth-largest in North America with a population of 2.8 million. Its deputy police chief Myron Demkiw told a House of Commons safety committee in February that it is illegal guns from the US that need attention.

He said that in 2021, 86% of the handguns traced by investigators in Toronto were smuggled into Canada from the US.

But Mendicino countered that there was a significant jump in the number of guns seized at the Canada-US border in 2021, compared to the previous year.

"I'm confident that we're making progress in the fight against illegal gun trafficking at our borders," he said.

Police in Windsor, a Canadian border city across from Detroit and a major crossing point between the two countries, said in 2021 that 123 illegal handguns were seized coming into Canada from the US, while in 2020 the number was 93.

While the new ban has come into effect, it still needs to be passed by parliament this fall, considered a formality as it has the backing of most federal politicians.