Most crime guns traced by RCMP came from within Canada, internal reports say
Most crime guns traced by RCMP came from within Canada, internal reports say
https://halifax.citynews.ca/2026/06/11/most-crime-guns-traced-by-rcmp-came-from-within-canada-internal-reports-say/
Publish Date: 2026-06-11 04:48:00
OTTAWA — The vast majority of crime guns traced by the RCMP to identifiable sources in 2023 and 2024 came from within Canada and were not smuggled from abroad, say internal reports prepared by the national police force.
The analyses found almost all of the long guns traced — and a substantial number of the handguns — were domestically sourced.
The figures, the latest available from the RCMP, provide new insights into the origins of firearms involved in crimes ranging from break and enter to homicide.
The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain the May 2024 and September 2025 reports by the RCMP’s Canadian National Firearms Tracing Centre and the force’s Criminal Firearms Strategic and Operational Support Services.
Some parts of the reports were considered too sensitive to release.
In 2024, the RCMP centre completed 6,951 firearm traces. Of these, 4,197 were identified as crime guns — 2,814 of which had a known source.
The centre reports that 71 per cent of those firearms traced in 2024 were domestically sourced long guns, 17 per cent were smuggled handguns, nine per cent were domestically sourced handguns and two per cent were smuggled long guns. A small number of firearms were not categorized as either long guns or handguns.
Sixty-seven of the crime gun traces in 2024 turned up privately manufactured firearms, sometimes called homemade “ghost guns.”
Among the completed firearm traces where the source of the firearm and its type of action were known, semi-automatics were found to be the most common.
The RCMP centre defines crime guns as firearms that were used or suspected to have been used in criminal offences, guns whose serial numbers have been obliterated or altered, firearms that were found but not reported lost or stolen, and replicas, toys, 3D-printed guns, pellet or air guns that have been used in criminal offences.
Of the crime gun traces completed in 2024, four per cent had a link to organized crime, such as…
