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Despite an increase in the number of guns seized in Regina through the first 11 months of 2019, the number of violent firearms incidents in the city also increased in that time frame.
According to the Regina Police Service’s firearms report for November, officers seized 438 guns from January through November of last year. The five-year average for that 11-month time period was 383.
Police seized 43 guns in November of 2019. That was an increase of 60 per cent from November of 2018, when 27 guns were seized.
Even so, the report released Thursday said there were 162 “violent occurrences involving a firearm” between January and November of last year. That was an increase of 15 per cent over the first 11 months of the previous year, when 141 such incidents occurred.
There were seven gun incidents in Regina in November, equalling the number in November of 2018.
Police said there were two “firearm occurrences without injuries” in November, down from 12 in the same month in 2018. There were 55 such incidents in the first 11 months of 2019, a decrease from 62 in the same time period one year earlier.
Those incidents are classified as discharging a firearm with intent, using a gun in the commission of an offence and pointing a gun.
The statistics also showed there were 35 guns stolen between January and November last year, well below the 2018 number of 54 as well as the five-year average of 49.
However, there were 58 victims of gun crimes over the first 11 months of 2019, up significantly from the 37 victims reported in the same time frame in 2018.
