Quebec puts $90 million towards fighting gun crime

Following on last month's announcement of a new police unit aimed at battling gun crime, Quebec's provincial government has announced a further $90 million in funding for more efforts against criminal firearms usage.

The money is aimed at several different goals. CBC reports the anti-crime plan is codenamed Operation CENTAUR, with several sub-facets to the plan.

The province intends to hire dozens of police officers, as well as lab specialists, all specifically recruited to fight firearms crime. The province also intends to increase funding to existing units inside Quebec that fight firearms trafficking and other forms of gun-related crime. Quebec's leaders are also hoping for increased and improved collaboration between the province's internal police forces, as well as externally-led forces such as the RCMP, CBSA and the US Department of Homeland Security.

It all sounds good, but are there are any hard details to the plan, besides hiring more officers and spending a lot of money? What will those new officers be doing? Initial reporting on CENTAUR is filled with mention of intelligence sharing and quick response to crime and gang violence, with no mention of crackdowns on legal firearms owners. Indeed, according to the Canadian Press, Quebec's Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault said CENTAUR would be modeled after Operation Wolverine, which was aimed at fighting outlaw motorcycle gangs in Quebec in the 1990s.

That's probably good news for legal gun owners. Quebec's justice system has long been seen as tough on law-abiding shooters; it's the only province to retain a firearms registry, in the wake of the federal registry's shutdown. However, in recent months, the province's leaders seem to be waking up to the dangers of real criminals with guns, not trying to create paper criminals. Last month, when the province announced a new anti-firearms crime unit focused on Montreal, the talk was all about smuggling, not about banning various firearms variants, which is what we see at the federal level.

Closing illegal firearms pipelines through the Port of Montreal, as well as the Canada-US border, is a good place to start, if leaders want to get illegal handguns off the streets. With shooting numbers rising rapidly in the province, particularly in Montreal, leaders will have to make the right choices if they want to see actual impact on the problem. Hopefully, they're headed down that road, and this project won't get sidetracked, picking low-hanging fruit by harassing firearms owners who follow the law. It will take more than a large cash injection to actually see results―law enforcement will need a sensible plan. And, courts will need to follow up law enforcement's hard work by ensuring ciminals stay locked up after their capture and conviction.

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