Toronto Mayor John Tory Is Calling on Justin Trudeau’s Government to Increase Gun Control

Toronto Mayor John Tory is blaming a spike in the city's gun homicides this year on lax gun laws and he's calling for the federal government to tighten them.

Toronto has seen 39 gun-related homicides in 2016, compared to 26 last year, according to police statistics. In a letter addressed to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, Tory writes that no one should have to lose a loved one to gun violence.

"I want to get the guns out of the hands of those who choose to do harm and are hell-bent on disrupting our peaceful city," he says. He notes that 50 percent of illicit guns in Toronto are smuggled from across the border, while the other half are either stolen from legal firearms owners or obtained on the black market.

Tory says he finds it troubling that licensed gun owners here are able to "amass small arsenals of handguns" and that there's no limit to the number of firearms a licensed owner can possess.

"This, I'm sure you would agree, is an obvious gap that needs to be addressed particularly given that legally purchased Canadian guns are turning up in criminal investigations with greater frequency."

Table via Toronto Police Service

Canada has about 30.8 guns per 100 people, ranking roughly fifth in the world among developed nations, while restricted gun ownership (handguns and semi-automatic rifles) went up 9.5 percent in 2015. The gun homicide rate is about 0.5 per 100,000 people—seven times lower than the US. Toronto's homicide rate was 1.35 per 100,000 in 2015, compared to 3.30 per 100,000 in Regina, which had the highest rate in the country. For comparison, the homicide rates in New Orleans, Detroit, and Chicago, respectively, are: 46.9 per 100,000; 45 per 100,000; and 16.4 per 100,000.

Last month, the Toronto Star wrote about four men who legally purchased guns and sold them on the black market. The story referenced a Toronto police memo that said domestic trafficking was an issue that was exacerbated by the difficulty in information sharing between local police and the RCMP, which runs the country's firearms program. Tory's office said the memo is in part what he based his letter on.

In response to Tory's letter, Goodale has said the Conservatives under Stephen Harper "steadily weakened our gun laws in ways that made Canadians more vulnerable and communities more dangerous" including removing the requirement for businesses to record the sale of non-restricted firearms.

He said the government is looking to develop a gun control strategy, the details of which will be announced next year.

But gun advocate Rod Giltaca, president of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, says Tory's letter is based on rhetoric, not facts.

"He has absolutely nothing to bring to the table. Nothing. He has no ability to solve his own problem," Giltaca told VICE. "So he wants the federal minister to punish 2.1 million gun owners from Whitehorse to Charlottetown."

Giltaca, who owns 20 guns for teaching a safety course and several more for personal use, said the gun homicide rate has still been in decline since the long gun registry was scrapped in 2012.

In fact, 2013 marked the lowest national gun homicide rate recorded since the Homicide Survey began in 1974, with 135 homicides, followed by an increase to 156 gun homicides in 2014 (still the second lowest), according to Statistics Canada.

As for people who sell guns illegally to the black market, Giltaca said they are already breaking federal laws, and he doesn't believe adding more laws will change anything.

"Stopping gang violence is hard work, it takes a decade to do that," he said. "(Tory) wants to write a letter attacking millions of people he's never met. That's his answer."

Mike Bartlett, an Ontario-based gun collector, told VICE he sees the government's conundrum but he doesn't think placing a limit on the number of firearms a person can own will help.

"If I were going out and buying 10 brand new Glock pistols then I would like to think that that would raise a red flag," he said. But at the same time, he thinks stories like the one in the Star paint all gun owners negatively when "it's really such a small and highly sensationalized number of bad apples."

At his peak, Bartlett owned 250 firearms; many of the guns he owns have historical significance (i.e. World War II-era.) He also owned a gun store in St. John's, Newfoundland, where he said he took his social responsibility of selling guns very seriously.

"I think there's a misunderstanding of the culture that we're not talking about. Somebody who necessarily owns or purchases a lot of firearms (is not) necessarily a risk."

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