Inside Alberta's battle against the rise of 'ghost guns'
Law enforcement is seeing a rise in untraceable, privately manufactured firearms
For the last three years, Alberta police services have been grappling with a new trend in illegal firearms: A surge in guns built using privately manufactured or smuggled parts that make them untraceable.
Those firearms are often referred to as ghost guns.
"It's becoming a massive problem for Canadian law enforcement and the public," said Sgt. Richard Kurina.
He's an officer with the Lethbridge Police Service who also monitors southern Alberta and its border crossings as a member of the RCMP National Weapons Enforcement Support Team.
Privately manufactured firearms (PMFs) fall into one of three categories:
- 3D-printed guns.
- 'Franken guns' (cobbled together parts).
- Polymer80s (kits with unfinished receivers that people can complete themselves).
Canadian firearms laws regulate the receivers, which is where information like a serial number is stored. These privately made guns exclude any regulatory information — causing challenges for investigations, prosecutions and proactive operations.
"PMFs in our crime gun picture has gone up, it's probably doubled or tripled," said Acting Staff Sgt. Ben Lawson of the Calgary Police Service's firearms investigative unit.
Calgary police said they seized 31 PMFs last year, including 16 3D-printed guns. That's about six per cent of all crime guns seized in 2022.
They seized one each of the 3D prints in 2021 and 2020.
The force also recently conducted two major operations targeting 3D-printed firearms. One of those investigations seized three printers and five completed handguns, resulting in 66 charges against two men running the gun printing and trafficking operation in Calgary.
'It's going to grow exponentially,' police warn
Edmonton police recovered seven 3D-printed firearms in 2022. The force only just started keeping statistics for them last year.
In southern Alberta, Kurina said he was aware of a handful of cases last year involving 3D-printing operations, including in small rural communities.
That part of the province has also been seeing more Polymer80s — mostly assembled gun kits from the United States that people can finish with unregulated parts.
"In the last several years, we've had an uptick or increased presence of privately manufactured firearms," he said.
"It's going to grow exponentially."
These untraceable guns, assembled in garages, basements and warehouses or smuggled from the U.S. are posing new challenges for law enforcement. And police investigations are working to stay on pace with the developments.
"I think we're on the beginning of that trend up," said Doug King, a criminology professor at Mount Royal University.
"It's the age-old issue of how does law enforcement and criminal law keep up with technology changes."
Gun violence has been on the rise in Alberta. Between 2017 and 2021, firearms-related offences jumped 66 per cent, according to Statistics Canada crime data.
The Calgary Police Service said there were 126 shootings in the city last year. That's 33 per cent higher than 2021, and 45 per cent higher than the five-year average.
They seized about 500 crime guns in 2022. Police were unable to trace the origins of about half of them.
Province stepping in on crime and guns
Alberta's government is increasing supports to tackle gun crime, including $4.4 million in this year's provincial budget to create firearms investigative and gang suppression units in the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams, an umbrella of multiple levels of law enforcement.
"There is no place for illegal firearms in Alberta and there must be consequences for criminal activity," reads an email response from the minister of justice's spokesperson, Ethan Lecavalier-Kidney.
"A proactive increase of resources to the Alberta Chief Firearms Office is part of our strategy to make our communities safer."
That office has received more funding to assist law enforcement with files like illegal firearms manufacturing, 3D printing and more resources for Crown prosecutors.
But law enforcement teams say it'll take more co-operation between forces and better follow-through on prosecutions to keep pace with people manufacturing these guns.
"One of the biggest hurdles that I find is the follow-through on the prosecution of the offences," Kurina said.
It's that multi-level co-ordination that King thinks is the way to tackle PMFs.
"Instead of leaving it up to individual police agencies to do it, who are absolutely strapped right now in terms of workload, I think the federal government and I think particularly the provincial government needs to step up and fund these kind of interagency investigation units," he said.
Calgary police are working with the chief firearms officer to get information about the people and parts that are involved in these crimes to assist in investigations.
CPS is also trying to have better communication with Crown prosecutors to make sure police are providing the information they need to see charges through to convictions.
As law enforcement adjusts, Kurina says this will be a key test for police.
"This type of activity is really at its core what the criminal use of firearms are in Canada and in Alberta."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
