Ottawa Police Says Growing Number of Firearms Being Smuggled from the U.S.

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Ottawa police has highlighted in its latest press release that increasing number of handguns being smuggled from the eastern seaboard of the United States, which are routinely syphoned through border crossings in eastern Ontario, are aiding to an amplified number of firearms on Ottawa’s streets. Police said that these firearms usually come from states such as Virginia and Florida and eventually end up in possession of Ottawa gang members.

Consequently, police concluded that these increased number of guns on streets have led to the latest increased gang shootings, specially the recent two in the last three days. These incidents took place on Boxing Day at Tanger Outlets mall in Kanata, and Bank and Slater streets on early Monday morning. Ottawa police highlighted that this has also led to record number of annual shootings in the city, i.e. 48 in 2014. Whereas on the other hand, the force has also geared up to tackle the situation and made extraordinary arrests, raids and seizures in the past few months. It said that almost 254 charges were laid against 27 people in mid-December, along seven firearms seized and more than 400 rounds of ammunition.

Ottawa police Det. working on the force’s guns and gangs unit, Chris O’Brien, alleged that guns are more than available on the street for the right price if gangsters need any. He said that “there are more guns out there” and “the trend in the last 10 years is there has been an increase in the number of guns on the street.”