As gun violence rises in Canada, weapons from the U.S. complicate gun control efforts
A bill before Canada's Parliament aims to stop the spread of handguns — but one of the most difficult challenges for Canada is the guns being smuggled over the border from the U.S.
TORONTO, Canada — A few weeks ago, the Rev. Sky Starr led a funeral in northwest Toronto for a 24-year-old shooting victim. Among the mourners, she noticed a young man.
"I saw this youth was kneeling at the casket, he was praying," Starr recalls. The next morning, she received a call letting her know the same young mourner was dead. He'd been shot and killed overnight.
Canada's 2019 rate of violent deaths by firearms of 0.5 per 100,000 people was an . But shootings have been since 2014. Many homicides, particularly those committed with handguns, are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods like Jane and Finch,
