While gun violence occurs less frequently in Canada than the U.S., the country still sees more firearm-related deaths than many other G20 countries.
According to data compiled by the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based independent research project, Canada ranks seventh amongst G20 nations when it comes to its rate of gun-related homicides, with 0.9 violent death by firearm per 100,000 people. That puts Canada ahead of countries like Russia, India and Saudi Arabia.
Mexico leads the G20 with a gun-related homicide rate of 22.37 deaths per 100,000 people, followed by Brazil at 18.65 and the United States at 6.74. Rates of zero deaths per 100,000 were reported in Japan and South Korea, followed closely by China with 0.03.
On Tuesday, a mass shooting in the northern B.C. community of Tumbler Ridge left nine people dead, including the suspect, and injured more than two dozen others. It is the second deadliest school shooting in Canada after the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal in 1989, which led to the deaths of 14 women.
Such mass shootings have historically led to changes in Canada’s gun control laws.
The G20 is an international forum comprised of 19 of the world’s largest economies as well as the African Union and the European Union.
The Small Arms Survey data comes from 2021 and is taken from sources including national governments, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The Small Arms Survey publishes separate data for the four countries that comprise the United Kingdom.
