'Ghost guns,' handguns growing concern in Saskatoon, police firearms report says

Handguns and untraceable firearms are a growing concern in Saskatoon, the city's Board of Police Commissioners heard Thursday during a discussion of the Saskatoon Police Service's first firearms report.

The report is connected to the development of a Saskatoon Police Service gun crime strategy.

"When you start looking at national trends with respect to firearms and firearms activity, being a major centre, we know that there's going to be … firearms coming into our community and leaving our community," said Patrick Nogier, the service's superintendent in charge of the criminal investigation division.

Last year, police in the city recorded 168 incidents involving firearms. 

While the number was the same as in 2020, it still reflects a 17 per cent increase compared to the five-year average of 143 occurrences, according to the report.

In 2021, officers responded to 54 gunshot incidents in Saskatoon, meaning incidents where someone actually pulled the trigger on weapon.

In 70 per cent of these events, there was a person who was shot, or being shot at.

The other 30 per cent include reports of gunshots that were not directed at a specific person or group, as well as shots fired at a home or business, the report says.

In 23 of the 54 incidents, police say they don't know the motivation behind firing the shots. However, 28 per cent of the gun crime events were gang motivated or associated, they say.

The report further showed that none of the seven homicides in the city in 2021 came as a result of illegal gun activity. 

Handguns pose 'significant threat'

In total, police seized 590 firearms in 2021. Of those, 66 per cent are considered "crime guns" and 34 per cent were firearms turned over to police by the public without any association to a criminal event.

Of the 392 crime guns, 210 — 54 per cent — were handguns, the report says.

Those weapons are particularly dominant when it comes to crimes involving guns being fired, which Nogier said is concerning.

Twenty-two of the 54 gunshot incidents in 2021 involved handguns, compared to 10 involving rifles and 12 involving  shotguns, the report says.

"Being able to access a handgun and hide a handgun and predominantly use a handgun poses a significant threat in the community," said Nogier.

"When you start seeing what's being taken and being reported as thefts from residences, we're not seeing a lot of handguns. So where are the handguns coming from?"

There were 39 stolen firearms reported in 2021. The vast majority were long guns such as rifles, while only 13 per cent were handguns, according to the report.

That suggests that handguns are being transported into Saskatchewan or manufactured locally, said Nogier.

Ghost guns an emerging problem

Another emerging concern across Canada are "ghost guns," or untraceable guns, due to 3D printing becoming more readily available to the public, the report says.

In January, officers in the city executed a search warrant for 3D-printed firearms and components.

"These are guns that do not show up and you cannot track or trace," said Nogier.

"We know that this is going to be a potential threat for us."

Looking south of the border, as an example, officers in California took roughly 35,000 firearms off the street in 2021, he said — 30 per cent of which were ghost guns. 

"Historically what we experience in Canada is roughly 10 per cent of what they experience in the States with respects to gun activity," he said.

"In California, next year, they're anticipating that 50 per cent of the guns that they will be dealing with are ghost guns."

Nogier added this raises some alarms in regard to what might happen in this community.

The findings in the report generally raise concerns for police officers, he said.

"There is more of an awareness from our front-line personnel that when they do pull a vehicle over that's been suspected of being involved in criminal activity, the likelihood of guns has never been higher now than it has been in the last two decades," said Nogier.

But in spite of some of the troubling numbers in the report, he told CBC that it's not intended to create fear in the city.

"We want to make sure that we get in front of it rather than have to react to problems that might arise," he said.