‘We Are Seeing Way Too Many Guns from the United States Coming across the Border’

“It used to be that whenever we heard about a shooting in the U.S., we thought, ‘Maybe they’ll see how safe it is here and become more like us.’ But unfortunately, we are now becoming more like them.”*

These words from Wendy Cukier, co-founder of the Coalition for Gun Control and a professor at the University of Toronto, express her deep disappointment with Toronto, the country’s largest city, which was once considered one of the safest cities in the world.

The data show that as of the end of August, there have been 306 shootings in Toronto this year, a sharp increase of 50% over the same period last year. Guns that have been smuggled from the United States are the main reason.

‘A Gun That Costs $500 in the US Can Sell for $5,000 in Canada’

According to The Wall Street Journal, the surge in gun violence in Toronto is mainly driven by turf wars in the tow truck industry. Some local tow truck businesses are controlled by gangs, and rival factions often clash when one encroaches on the other’s territory. Local police say that in the past, these disputes were mostly settled with fists, but now, guns smuggled from the U.S. have turned these conflicts into a “blood sport,” making tow truck services a deadly business.

Data from Canadian border patrol agencies show that the number of smuggled guns seized at the U.S.-Canada border increased by 25% between 2019 and 2024. These guns mainly come from U.S. states with lax gun control, such as Ohio, Michigan, Texas and Florida. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has blamed the influx of smuggled American guns for the city’s rapid growth in violent crime: “No doubt about it, we are seeing way too many guns from the United States coming across the border.”

Some U.S. media outlets have previously reported that, unlike the United States, the Canadian Constitution does not provide for the right to bear arms, which means that it is easier for the government to pass gun control laws, and restrictions on gun sales are much stricter. However, gun regulations were relaxed during the Conservative government administration from 2006 to 2015, most notably with the 2012 repeal of a mandatory national gun registry, making it harder for law enforcement to effectively track the weapons used in crimes. In addition, U.S. gun lobby groups like the National Rifle Association have stimulated the firearms market and fueled anti-gun-control sentiment, deliberately influencing the gun culture of neighboring countries. It has led to a sharp rise in the number of firearms flowing from the U.S. into Canada.

Per capita, Canada is now the largest overseas buyer of U.S. small arms and has the second-highest rate of gun ownership among developed countries, after the United States. [Former] Toronto Police Chief Bill Fordy has stated that the explicit right to bear arms in the U.S. Constitution makes guns easy to obtain, creating a lucrative black market. Some people buy guns in the U.S. and then resell them in Canada for huge profits.

It is believed that a gun purchased for $500 in the U.S. can easily sell for $5,000 in Canada. Once these U.S. guns enter Canada, they are likely to be used in robberies, murders and other violent crimes. Fordy noted that last year, in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, 90% of the guns used in known violent crimes were traced back to the United States, “through our tracing and analysis, we know the top states (these guns come from) are Ohio, Texas, Florida and Georgia.”

‘Being Geographically Close to the US Is a Really Big Problem’

In fact, gun violence has not only long been an epidemic that the U.S. cannot cure but has become a contagion that harms other parts of the world, particularly neighboring countries. Compared to Canada, a developed northern neighbor, Mexico, the southern neighbor of the United States, suffers even more from the smuggling of U.S. guns, for which there’s no remedy.

Mexico has very strict gun control laws, with only one gun store in the entire country. However, neighboring U.S. border states are full of gun stores. The Mexican government has long accused U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors of fueling rampant arms smuggling across the border, resulting in about 500,000 guns being illegally trafficked into Mexico each year, many of which end up in the hands of criminal gangs.

Since 2021, the Mexican government has been filing lawsuits against several U.S. gun makers and dealers in at least two states, seeking $10 billion in damages. However, the Mexican side has so far been unable to win its cases due to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, passed by the U.S. in 2005, which shields U.S. gun manufacturers and dealers from civil liability.

Statistics show that most of the guns found and traced in violent crimes in Latin America come from the United States. The long-standing Haiti crisis is a clear example of how American guns plague Latin American countries. A research report, “Haiti’s Criminal Markets,” released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime earlier this year, pointed out that “every metric of insecurity […] is trending upward” in Haiti and a major reason is that “firearms trafficking between the US and Haiti is surging.”*

According to estimates by Haiti’s National Commission on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, the country may have as many as 500,000 small arms in circulation, of which only 38,000 are legally registered. Analysts say that with the increase in trafficking in recent years this number may now be even higher. Brazilian security expert Robert Muggah has pointed out that the easy flow of U.S. guns is one of the main factors worsening Haiti’s social instability. He has warned that the massive influx of illegal weapons has greatly strengthened the power of Haitian criminal gangs, allowing them to easily overwhelm the country’s poorly armed law enforcement agencies and leading to an escalation in violent crime.

All of this explains why the number of Haitian immigrants attempting to enter the U.S. illegally has been rising in recent years. Haitian economist Camille Chalmers has said that Haiti’s ongoing turmoil and its people’s insecurity are not only the product of U.S. and Haitian domestic powers conspiring to create chaos but are also linked to the covert support provided by the smuggling of U.S. guns. He says it is “making the country’s development increasingly difficult” and that “being geographically close to the U.S. is a really big problem.”*

*Editor’s Note: These quotes, while accurately translated, could not be independently verified.