[urban rednek]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

And if the RCMP are tossed out of Alberta, it would greatly reduce his control over us.

I thought that as well; we might want to reconsider that sentiment.

https://calgarysun.com/news/local-ne...5-6e705b04836a

Calgary police on board in principle with Ottawa gun buy-back plan

Gun violence remains top of mind for Calgary police, with the city tracking towards its worst year for shootings on record
Jason Herring Publishing date: Sep 28, 2022

Calgary’s police chief agrees in principle with the federal government’s plan to seize assault-style firearms, but says he needs to see more details before committing to his force’s involvement.

The Calgary Police Service has yet to receive details from Ottawa on how local police agencies will be asked to aid in the buy-back confiscation of about 30,000 firearms targeted by new legislation, Chief Mark Neufeld said at a Wednesday Calgary police commission meeting.

But he broadly supports the initiative to remove weapons the federal government considers assault-style, as gun violence remains top of mind for Calgary police, with the city tracking towards its worst year for shootings on record.

“There’s been a lot of discussion, but we haven’t gotten the specifics,” Neufeld said.

“We want to come at it from the lens of community safety, and also officer safety given the number of guns our officers are seizing on the street — I think the number was 330 year-to-date, expected to be in the 550 range by the end of the year.

“What’s pretty clear is mass shootings have occurred in the U.S. and those have occurred in Canada where they’ve involved those types of weapons, and the devastation has been much worse due to the use and availability of those kind of weapons.”

However, Calgary police will need to hear details on what’s expected of them so they can evaluate how it will impact staffing needs, Neufeld said. He nodded to some other concerns, including the process for people bringing firearms into police stations.

The comments come following an Alberta government press conference earlier in the week when Justice Minister Tyler Shandro said the UCP government will fight the federal buy-back policy, and will ask the RCMP not to participate in those efforts.

In response, federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s office said they plan to continue working with police, governments, industry and gun owners to implement its plans to remove those guns from the public’s hands.

Calgary is in the midst of a spate of shootings which has the city on track for its highest rates of gun violence ever.

Through Sept. 27, there had been 106 shootings in the city in 2022 — the most recent of which took place just past 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon in the 1700 block of 28 Avenue S.W., a daytime incident in a busy residential area which police say they believe was targeted.

Presenting data to the police commission on the city’s first 100 shootings of the year, Supt. Scott Boyd said 26 of those are thought to be linked to organized crime.

“The violence can be directly attributed to the wanton and reckless behaviour of a few individuals in our city, who do not reflect the same caring beliefs and values that the majority of Calgarians display,” Boyd said.

Through Sept. 12, just more than half of the city’s homicides in the year — 12 of 21 — involved a victim killed by gunshot injuries.

The guns involved in those crimes originate from a wide array of places. Some are smuggled into Canada or created using 3D printers, while others are stolen in commercial or residential break-and-enters. But the source of a number of guns remains unknown, as their serial numbers have been illegally removed.

Boyd said shootings aren’t occurring only in one area of the city, and don’t trend to any specific time of day or day of the week.

“Crime literally knows no boundaries and gun violence should be a concern for all Calgary, not just those that live anecdotally in high crime areas,” said Boyd, issuing a plea for those with knowledge that could help police prevent gun violence to come forward, particularly amid declining cooperation from victims.

“We literally are getting calls from somebody showing up at a hospital with a gunshot wound to their leg and telling us that they don’t want anything to do with us. That degree of cooperation or lack thereof that we’re experiencing is making solving these serious crimes that much more difficult.”