Spate of gun crimes continues into new year

On New Year’s Day, we published an article listing gun violence as one of the issues that plagued Niagara during 2022.

That same day, a motor vehicle crash in Niagara Falls led to police seizing a restricted firearm, allegedly owned by the driver.

In an unrelated incident three days later, on Jan. 4, a house on Armstrong Drive in a quiet residential area of Niagara Falls was sprayed by gunfire that entered the home through the front window, just after 9 p.m.

Thankfully, the occupants were able to escape safely to the basement and no one was injured.

In all likelihood, gun crime will be an even bigger problem for Niagara in 2023 than it was last year. If you have any reason to feel otherwise, please, we’d love to hear it.

Handguns are the guns most often used in crime. Canada’s ban on the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns took effect in October.

That will help, somewhat.

Even so, gun-related crime incidents will almost certainly increase here in Niagara because they are increasing nearly everywhere else in Canada.

Sometimes, it’s a blessing to be situated the way Niagara is, with some of the country’s busiest border crossings on one side and Canada’s biggest city, Toronto with its 2.7 million residents, on the other.

Not so much, though, when it comes to gun crime.

The border and the access it offers to the United States makes Niagara a magnet for organized crime. Niagara Regional Police have estimated there are 32 street gangs operating in Niagara.

The border is also where the vast majority of guns are smuggled in from. In a lot of ways, it’s surprising gun-related crime isn’t even worse in Niagara than it already is.

And the rise in gun crimes committed in Niagara is undeniable. Statistics Canada has reported that from 2009 to 2014, the St. Catharines-Niagara area reported a yearly average of 17 gunrelated crimes per 100,000 population.

By 2020, that had risen to 20 gun crimes per 100,000, and last year it was 27 per 100,000. That’s based on data provided by police.

In Niagara last year, two people were shot to death and at least 13 others were wounded.

Police need to find more effective ways to prevent gun-related crime, obviously, but that is just a small part of the confusing puzzle.

It’s also a societal issue linked to a wide range of issues from the sale of illegal drugs to human trafficking to poverty.

It’s also undeniably tied to our next-door neighbour, the U.S., which has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world, according to worldpopulationreview.com — 120 guns per 100 people.

That’s nearly double the rate of the country with the second-highest ownership, the Falkland Islands with 62 guns per 100 people.

We face an uphill battle to control gunrelated crime because instead of one miraculous answer that might do the trick, we are grasping for dozens of smaller cures that could only chip away at parts of the problem.

“You hear about these kinds of things happening more and more, but I didn’t think it would happen here,” said one Niagara Falls resident, interviewed after Wednesday’s shooting up of the house on Armstrong Drive.

These things are happening more and more. Right here. And there’s no sign that it’s going to slow down any time soon.

Statistics Canada has reported that from 2009 to 2014, the St. Catharines-Niagara area reported a yearly average of 17 gun-related crimes per 100,000 population