UNPACKING HEAT
Hundreds of firearms are being turned over to police. But is the city really safer?
Toronto’s gun amnesty program has just wrapped up, but how much of a difference did it make?
Lois and Robert Atkins are a lovely couple in their 80s who adore their grandkids, go bowling twice a week and — until recently — were packing heat.
That is to say, for the past 60 years the couple has had a gigantic vintage rifle in their Scarborough bungalow, tucked away in their basement crawlspace.
The origins of the dusty old firearm — believed to be a bolt action .22 magnum — are not fully known. Robert’s father was a farmer, and Robert thinks he may have used the weapon to go hunting. Robert inherited it sometime in the 1950s.
Whenever Lois remembered it was in her basement, “it gave me the willies,” she said. So this week, the couple dug it out from its hiding spot and called Toronto police.
“It’s going to be nice to have it out of the house,” she said, shortly before two cruisers pulled up to take it off her hands.
The gun is one of more than 50 picked up by Toronto police in their ongoing gun amnesty, which began earlier this month and continues until Monday. The initiative, put on by the force every few years, gives Torontonians the opportunity to safely dispose of unwanted guns.
Similar programs have been in place previously in Toronto, across Canada and throughout the U.S., with police forces sometimes providing extra incentives such as offers of money or gifts in exchange for guns.
Organizers know it’s highly unlikely they’ll get criminals or gang members turning in guns. That’s in part because the Toronto amnesty is not anonymous. Police take down the name of the owners and information about the gun, then the weapon is tested for any links to ongoing criminal investigations.
If a link is found to a previous crime, there could be charges. None of the hundreds of guns collected through previous Toronto police gun amnesties, however, have ever been traced back to a crime.
So rather than criminals, the Toronto initiative is targeted precisely at people like the Atkinses — they’ve inherited the gun, never plan to use it and may not be storing it properly.
“And they think that if they call the police they’ll be in trouble,” said Toronto police Insp. Chris Boddy, who is spearheading the amnesty.
Once the gun has been tested and it’s come back clear, police destroy it. That’s the point, after all — to “make sure it won’t fall into the hands of the criminal element,” Boddy said.
But what risk did an ancient shotgun pose of getting into those hands in the first place? That’s up for debate. While there’s no way to know exactly what the risk is, it’s not hypothetical, Boddy said. Every year in Toronto, inherited guns are reported stolen during break-ins, and could be used in future crimes.
And just because they’re old doesn’t mean they won’t work, Boddy said.
“What I can tell you is that, even though these guns are all old, they’re nearly all operational and able to shoot like anything else. And there are crimes where shotguns are used . . . whether sawed off or otherwise,” he said.
But there is limited research on the efficacy of gun amnesties, and some academics suggest they achieve little in terms of reducing crime and increasing public safety. A 2004 study in the National Academy of Sciences found gun amnesties do not pull in the kinds of guns used in crimes.
“The guns that are typically surrendered are those that are least likely to be used in criminal activities — the guns tend to be old, malfunctioning guns whose resale value is less than the reward offered in buy-back programs, or guns owned by individuals who derive little value from them,” states the report.
Jooyoung Lee, a University of Toronto expert in gun and gang violence, said such amnesties could be more of a public relations move than a real effort to reduce crime.
“I do think a lot of the times, these measures sell well with the public, because it’s an easy, low-risk way for the police to get out there and do something that appears to be aimed at making communities safer.
“I tend to think that the real methods for making communities safer lie in broader systemic changes,” Lee said.
Anthony Hutchinson, a Torontobased street gang expert, said he thinks there is an extremely low likelihood that a gun similar to the ones being collected in the amnesty will be used in a violent crime.
“The probability of that is like winning the Princess Margaret lottery,” he said.
But Hutchinson said the other view is that getting any gun off the street is a good thing. Boddy agrees.
“Any time the Toronto police removes one gun out of a neighbourhood, it’s a good day, and we’ve had a lot of good days,” Boddy said. If you have a firearm you want to turn over for destruction, call 416-808-2222 to arrange a pickup. Do not take the guns into a police station.