Gangs and Guns

Tackling Gang Violence

Canada’s Conservatives will tackle the gang violence that causes too many Canadians to live in fear by:

  • Hiring an additional 200 RCMP officers to combat gangs and the smuggling of guns and drugs.
    • The officers will be based in the GTA and the Lower Mainland and will help keep our communities safe.
  • Establishing an entities list for criminal gangs.
    • This would eliminate the requirement for Crown Attorneys to prove that an organization is a criminal organization and would only require the Crown to prove that the accused is a member of such an organization.
  • Amending the automatic detention provisions of the Criminal Code by adding:
    • “with an offence in the commission of which violence was allegedly used, threatened or attempted and the accused had previously been convicted of for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal organization”.
  • Amending the Criminal Code so that usage of the same firearm by two separate individuals in the commission of a crime would create a rebuttable presumption that a criminal organization committed the offences.
  • Partnering with the private sector to create a Gang Exit Strategy program that will see the power of the private sector harnessed to give offenders the opportunity to escape a cycle of violence and start fresh in a new location with gainful employment and the support needed to leave behind a life of crime.
  • Working with partner organizations across the country to develop and expand programs to keep youth out of gangs.

Combating Gun Violence by Keeping Guns out of the Hands of Criminals

Canada’s Conservatives will go after gun smugglers by:

  • Cracking down on “straw purchasing” of firearms by:
    • Amending the Firearms Act so that an individual who, on three separate occasions during a calendar year, transfers a firearm for financial consideration must have a firearms business license.
    • Amending the Criminal Code to add the following aggravating factors on sentencing:
      • The number of firearms transferred
      • Whether financial consideration was exchanged
      • The amount of monetary consideration
    • Amending the Criminal Code provisions on unauthorized importing so that:
      • It is an aggravating factor on sentencing if more than one firearm is imported otherwise than under the authority of the Firearms Act
      • A mandatory minimum penalty of three years applies where the unauthorized importing occurs for financial consideration.
    • Supporting specialized enforcement against illegal firearms
      • CBSA and RCMP, working closely with American authorities in the United States, will target smuggling operations before illegal firearms reach the border, including by improving and expanding the RCMP contribution to the Integrated Border Enforcement Teams.

Canada’s Conservatives have a plan to take action against criminal use of firearms by:

  • Amending the Criminal Code provisions on possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose to make it an aggravating factor on sentencing where an individual commits the offence while the subject of a prohibition order under the Firearms Act and had previously been convicted of an offence under that section or an offence against the person while in possession of a firearm.
    • The offence will carry a sentence of from two to ten years.
  • Amending the Criminal Code provisions on the unauthorized possession of a firearm by imposing a mandatory minimum sentence of two years if the person was the subject of a prohibition order at the time of the events giving rise to the conviction or had been previously convicted of an offence involving a firearm.
  • Partnering with the Ontario Provincial Police to expand the Firearms Tracing and Enforcement database nationally and taking steps to ensure that all crime guns are submitted for testing and analysis and inclusion in this database.

Our focus will be on keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals. This contrasts with the Liberals, who have refused to take action against gangs while harassing hunters and sport shooters. Canada’s Conservatives will improve the regulation of legal firearms to ensure that it is evidence-based and focuses on protecting public safety.