Police seeking gun-violence solutions: VPD chief

Vancouver police Chief Adam Palmer says Canadian police leaders are looking for evidence-based ways to help combat gun violence.

Palmer, who was elected president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police at its annual conference in Halifax this week, said a committee is being set up to analyze data related to gun violence. Palmer said while gun violence “ebbs and flows” across the country, the chiefs believe there has been a spike in illegal firearm use over the past year. “We are seeing in many cities, small and large throughout our country, an increase in gun violence whether its Vancouver, Toronto, Winnipeg or out here in the Maritimes, we are seeing an increase in that,” Palmer said in Halifax.

He said Canada’s current guncontrol system is “actually very good,” and the association is not calling for any wholesale legislative changes related to gun violence. It also isn’t calling for tighter restrictions for rifles and shotguns.

Palmer said the association does support measures to strengthen certain aspects of federal gun regulations in Bill C-71, including rules around obtaining a gun licence and the transportation of firearms.

Palmer said the issue isn’t lawabiding people who want to possess firearms, but rather people who are involved in criminal activity who obtain guns through illegal means.

Those means include getting illegal firearms from the U.S., through break-and-enters, and from legal gun owners without criminal records who purchase firearms and then sell them on the black market.