Ontario Police Chief Tells MPs Nearly All Crime Guns Come From US, Urges Focus on Border Over Buyback

Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Thomas Carrique speaks to media during a press conference at the Haldimand OPP detachment in Cayuga, Ont., on Dec. 28, 2022. Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) commissioner has told MPs that Ottawa should crack down on illegal guns coming over the U.S. border instead of collecting guns from law-abiding citizens through its buyback program, saying 91 percent of guns used in crime come from the United States.

“We will exceed over 2,000 crime guns this year again—91 percent of them are coming in from the U.S.,” OPP Commissioner and Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police president Thomas Carrique told MPs at a House of Commons justice committee meeting on Oct. 28.