With the world’s attention focussed on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, it’s understandable gun crime in Toronto isn’t top of mind for most people.
But it should be because gun violence in Toronto has skyrocketed since the start of this year.
As of Feb. 27, shootings were up 47.7% compared to this time last year, the number of people injured is up 70.6%, the number of people fatally shot is up by 33.3% and the total number of people injured and killed by gunfire is up 57.7%.
Thus far there have been 65 shootings compared to 44 at this time last year, 29 people wounded compared to 17 last year, 12 people killed compared to nine last year and a total of 41 people wounded or killed compared to 26 last year.
It’s still early in 2022 and gun crime can fluctuate significantly over the course of a year based on such things as drug and turf wars among rival criminal gangs.
That said, if the current pace of gun violence were to continue for the rest of the year, Toronto could surpass the highest number of shootings recorded since comparable records began in 2004 (492 in 2019), the highest number of gun murders since 2005 (51 in 2018) and the highest number of people injured in shootings since 2004 (240 in 2019).
Toronto Police say the ages of shooters and victims in gun crime are getting younger and shootings are becoming more violent.
Two of the accused in gun murders so far this year were 13 years of age, almost a third of the fatal shootings have involved victims or accused under 20 years of age and the average age of those involved in gun violence has dropped from 25 to 20 in the last five years.
“There are a lot of youths out there who are getting guns … that’s unacceptable,” Insp. Hank Idsinga, head of Toronto’s homicide, unit told the Toronto Sun‘s Brad Hunter last month. “The ages of the shooters we’re seeing is going down.”
In addition, the shootings are becoming more violent and thus more dangerous, including for innocent bystanders.
Police say the number of shell casings they’re recovering from shooting scenes is up by 50% from last year, meaning criminals are using guns with larger magazines or the guns have been converted to rapid fire.
Gun violence in Toronto has skyrocketed since police street checks, also known as carding, were banned by the provincial and city governments after 2014, because of allegations the practice was racist.
In that year, gun violence was down dramatically from 2005’s notorious Summer of the Gun, when then police chief Bill Blair introduced a policy of enhanced street checks.
In 2005, there were 262 shootings with 178 people wounded and 53 people killed by gunfire.
By 2014, the number of shootings had dropped dramatically to a record low 177, the number of injuries to a record low 76 and the number killed by gunfire to 27.
Here’s what happened after 2014, without street checks:
2015: 288 shootings, 126 injured, 26 killed.
2016: 407 shootings, 152 injured, 41 killed.
2017: 392 shootings, 148 injured, 39 killed.
2018: 427 shootings, 178 injured, 51 killed.
2019: 492 shootings, 240 injured, 44 killed.
2020: 462 shootings, 178 injured, 39 killed.
2021: 408 shootings, 163 injured, 46 killed.
Given that there’s no political will to bring back street checks, increasing gun violence appears to be inevitable.
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