Plenty of people? I dont know anyone who has one except for my cop friends. How easy is it to obtain a legal or illegal handgun here. Genuinely curious.
2015 Ottawa.Fwiw.
Low-quality, semi-automatic guns from U.S. the 'weapon of choice' in Ottawa | CBC News
"Retired Canada Border Services Agency investigator Brent Lafave, who worked for the CBSA in Cornwall for 32 years, describes the St. Lawrence River as a highway for smugglers when the sun sets.
"They've got high-speed Ski-Doos, trailers, everything's blacked out," he said.
"In the summertime, it's boats. The boats are all matte black and they're very difficult to pick up. The boat drivers will be all in matte black clothing. Sometimes they'll have night observation devices. These boats are fast, they're purpose-built for smuggling."
Different ways to conceal
Once the guns make it into Ottawa, police said the weapons are well-hidden from authorities in homes and moved around the city concealed in vehicles.
Ottawa police say low-quality, semi-automatic handguns like this one are the new "weapon of choice" on city streets. (CBC)
"They say necessity is the mother of invention," said Solomon Friedman, a lawyer who represents gang members, including a man involved in the Tanger outlet mall shooting on Boxing Day.
"When you have a firearm that sells for $400 in the United States and $4,000 on the streets of Ottawa, people get pretty creative and they (hide) them in all sorts of auto parts."
Friedman said sometimes gang members custom-build panels in vehicles and use sophisticated electronic traps to conceal weapons.
He said the devices can even involve lowering a window and putting the heat to a certain setting to pop open the trap and reveal the hidden contraband inside.
"The gun commodity, it's a very difficult commodity to track and trace," said Acting Staff Sgt. Ken Bryden with the Ottawa police guns and gangs unit.
"It's moved around between gang members, it's moved around to different parts of the city for use, for concealment."
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