'Ghost guns,' handguns growing concern in Saskatoon, police firearms report says

Handguns and untraceable firearms are a growing concern in Saskatoon, the city's Board of Police Commissioners heard Thursday during a discussion of the Saskatoon Police Service's first firearms report.

The report is connected to the development of a Saskatoon Police Service gun crime strategy.

"When you start looking at national trends with respect to firearms and firearms activity, being a major centre, we know that there's going to be … firearms coming into our community and leaving our community," said Patrick Nogier, the service's superintendent in charge of the criminal investigation division.

Last year, police in the city recorded 168 incidents involving firearms. 

While the number was the same as in 2020, it still reflects a 17 per cent increase compared to the five-year average of 143 occurrences, according to the report.

In 2021, officers responded to 54 gunshot incidents in Saskatoon, meaning incidents where someone actually pulled the trigger on weapon.

In 70 per cent of these events, there was a person who was shot, or being shot at.

The other 30 per cent include reports of gunshots that were not directed at a specific person or group, as well as shots fired at a home or business, the report says.

In 23 of the 54 incidents, police say they don't know the motivation behind firing the shots. However, 28 per cent of the gun crime events were gang motivated or associated, they say.

The report further showed that none of the seven homicides in the city in 2021 came as a result of illegal gun activity. 

In total, police seized 590 firearms in 2021. Of those, 66 per cent are considered "crime guns" and 34 per cent were firearms turned over to police by the public without any association to a criminal event.

Of the 392 crime guns, 210 — 54 per cent — were handguns, the report says.

Those weapons are particularly dominant when it comes to crimes involving guns being fired, which Nogier said is concerning.

Twenty-two of the 54 gunshot incidents in 2021 involved handguns, compared to 10 involving rifles and 12 involving  shotguns, the report says.