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This summer, numerous shootings took place in the neighborhoods of Montreal, Laval and the surrounding areas of the city. Gunshots fired in broad daylight and stray bullets that disturb the feeling of tranquility of citizens. For a few hundred dollars and without a license, young people can get guns quickly and easily. How do they end up in their hands?
Crime in big cities
In the majority of cases, these are illegal weapons that cross the Canadian-American border by organized crime. “With one of the longest unfortified borders in the world, there are holes everywhere where trafficking is possible,” explains retired Quebec police investigator Paul Laurier. “Guns are very and too easy to find, and the sale of weapons is lucrative,” says the former investigator who worked on organized crime and terrorism. “If the police in Quebec removed all firearms, I guarantee you that In a month, the guns will be back.”
He links this possibility to the proximity of the United States market and the existence of channels between the two countries managed by organized crime. According to Francis Langlois, a researcher specializing in firearms in Canada and the United States at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair, the American market is too big and gun laws are weak. “It is extremely difficult to counter this and the supply is virtually unlimited in the United States. But that's really where you find the guns. Our neighbor is the problem,” he analyses. However, the specialist believes that border control will not change the violence in big cities if we do not invest in the prevention of violence in the first place. Ex-investigator Paul Laurier agrees.
“Gun regulation is not going to solve the problem. It takes people to go see young people and to break the phenomenon,” he said. “If we transform the socio-economic conditions of the neighborhoods most affected by this violence, it will ensure that young people can find a different path.” “Weapons make this violence more deadly, more dangerous.” They do not necessarily increase crime rates, they increase the possibility of being killed tenfold,” adds Francis Langlois.
A transformation of the industry
The culture of firearms testifies to the transformation that has taken place in the industry. “Starting in the 1980s, we ended up with one of several military-style, police-style weapons, semi-automatic weapons,” says Francis Langlois. These weapons were not on the market before.
“There is also the dissemination of the image, the weapon to ensure one's masculinity, to protect oneself. This is a discourse that is perpetuated by the industry, and this discourse creates a gun culture that is more aggressive,” believes the researcher. There are now semi-automatic pistols on the market in which you can put 10, 15 or 20 rounds of ammunition. Assault rifles can hold up to 100 bullets.
Mr. Langlois indicates that the Polytechnique massacre could not have been possible without a weapon that could contain 30 projectiles. “There is a whole discipline in rapid fire, it's new. It developed in the 1990s and 2000s. Not only are guns sold, but an entire culture.”
Handguns: “the federal hot potato”
“In the streets, shootings don't happen with long guns. Yes, they cause damage, but the danger is handguns,” says Paul Laurier. Echoing the former investigator, researcher Francis also argues that these illegal handguns, which come into the possession of street gangs, come from the United States. The specialist says he does not understand the emphasis on handgun control in the public debate, since most of these come from illegal arms trafficking. According to him, it is therefore not a legal check that will solve the fundamental problem. However, some handguns found on the streets are domestic: they are stolen from the legal market or sold to non-licensed individuals by legal license owners. Nathalie Provost, spokesperson for PolyseSouvenir, tells us that the number of handguns owned by legal owners has doubled in the last ten years.
According to Statistics Canada, there are now nearly one million handguns on the legal market. Several federal parties have spoken out on handgun control, relegating it to municipalities or provinces. Both Francis Langlois and Nathalie Provost believe that national control is necessary and these measures are not effective without such control.
“Even if we ban legal weapons on the territory of the city of Montreal, this does not prevent weapons from entering and leaving cities,” believes Mr. Langlois. He cites the shooter in the 2018 shooting on Danforth Street in Toronto, who obtained his handgun illegally in Toronto. The gun in question was sold legally in Saskatchewan.
Shootings and assault weapons
“When legal weapons are regulated, it is mainly to limit mass shootings”, believes the researcher. According to him, the objective of controlling military-style weapons such as assault weapons, which have very high firepower, is linked to public safety in terms of suicide and accidental use and mass shootings. Most of the weapons used in the type of tragedy targeting the masses were purchased legally: this is particularly the case with the weapons used at the Quebec Mosque and Dawson College.
“These are weapons that are prized by mass killers. That's why governments and organizations are looking to increase gun control. They are ideal weapons for the military or the police, but they are not designed to be used by civilians,” he said.
Since the destruction of the Canadian gun registry in 2012 by the Harper government, Canada has not had accurate data on the number of non-restricted weapons (shotguns and long guns) that circulate in the country. This makes it very difficult to know how many guns an owner of an unrestricted firearm license has. As a result, the Canadian government has lost track of numerous shotguns and assault weapons that were purchased. If in fact, the mandatory buy-back program proposed by the Liberal Party is interesting, it will be difficult to apply it, says the researcher. As evidenced by Charles, an owner of an unrestricted firearm license, who does sport shooting. He has 11 firearms, including 3 assault weapons.
None of his guns are on the 2020 decree. The young man has several friends who also own legal firearms. He says that the mandatory buy-back program mentioned in the May 2020 decree is the subject of a “running gag” in the firearms community.
“If you don't know how many people have these types of weapons, there's an obvious loophole. Who is going to tell the government that they have them?” , he asks. “What executive order allows is that it ends the trade in these weapons in Canada. Thus, there is no longer an avenue for the legitimate use of these since we no longer have the right to transport, exchange, possess and use them.
It is not perfect, but if we want to eliminate these weapons from the market, it is a good measure.” explains the specialist. The fact is that without a registry of unrestricted firearms, it is difficult to legislate, explains Francis Langlois. “It was the best, we destroyed it and it will not come back. It was too expensive,” says Nathalie Provost about the gun registry. The spokesperson for the PolyseSouient organization believes that no party goes far enough to control assault weapons for fear of losing votes if they propose too severe measures on legal weapons.
PolyseSouient is outraged by the argument of conservatives who don't want to “blame” gun owners who follow the rules with too many restrictions on legal weapons. “It gives the impression that Trudeau is harassing honest owners, when he only wants to remove weapons that are too powerful. We have nothing against nice owners, we are not taking away their ability to shoot, we are taking away models from them,” says the survivor of the Polytechnique massacre.
She is outraged by the fact that a citizen's firepower may be higher than the firepower of a police officer. Ms. Provost believes that the government should ban all assault weapons and that they have no place in the hands of citizens.
“In every country, where there is tighter gun control, there is less gun mortality. I am not saying that this will solve the whole problem of illegal weapons, we are not naive,” she argues. It draws a comparison between the vehicles. “Do you realize that we control a gun less than we control a car? The cars are registered, all our governments know who has how many cars, how many cars they have. This is not the case with firearms,” she illustrates. The register provided the information for law enforcement to take action.
Is a permit too easy to get?
“It's not difficult to get a gun license, but it's very bureaucratic,” explains Charles, who got his license in six months. After following a Canadian Firearms Safety Course, he takes an exam the same day. “Essentially, you don't have to point the gun at the instructor and demonstrate minimal skill in handling weapons,” he said mockingly. A few weeks later. He receives his certificate and can complete an application for a firearm license on the RCMP website. After a few months, Charles received an unrestricted firearm license, allowing him to buy long guns and shotguns. No psychological exam, no need to justify why he's asking for a gun license. “No need to say it's for sport,” he said.
“There are questions about criminal and violent histories, but there are no questions on the form about extremist ideologies and for mental health, it's a self-declaration,” notes the young man. The form asks for two references that validate the applicant's ability to obtain a firearm possession and acquisition license “in the interest of the safety of the applicant or any other person.” Charles would like to see more steps taken to ensure that people who want to get a gun license are sane. He believes that the debate does not sufficiently address this aspect. “You can always make it more difficult to obtain a permit, but you have to invest the resources to really do the checks,” agrees researcher Francis Langlois.