Ten years of Northwest Territories gun crime data

Data provided by the RCMP shows a rise in NWT firearm-related violations over recent years. Police leaders say they want a whole-of-government approach to tackle the issue.

Dyson Smith, the territory’s chief superintendent, said these crimes are creating a level of fear and concern in communities that didn’t previously exist.

“That is a serious thing we really need to be working to address,” he told Cabin Radio.

In August, one person was injured in a shooting in Fort Simpson. An RCMP spokesperson said police haven’t yet laid charges in relation to that incident but an investigation remains ongoing.

The following week, a half-day shelter-in-place order was issued in Fort Smith after an early-morning shooting during the Fireweed Festival left three people wounded. RCMP charged two Alberta men in connection.

In September, one person died after shots were fired inside a home in Inuvik. Police later charged an Edmonton man with murder.

RCMP data shows an increase in gun-related violations recorded by police in the NWT since 2022.

Some of the more common violations include unauthorized possession of a firearm, unsafe storage of a firearm, careless use of a firearm and pointing a firearm.

Included in the data was one violation of manslaughter with a firearm, nine of attempted murder with a firearm, six instances in the past two years of extortion with a firearm and four violations that involved a sexual assault.

The figures include violations related to the use, possession or storage of imitation firearms. They don’t include what police term “investigations of a non-criminal nature,” such as suicides or guns that were lost, or investigations where offences “did not directly involve firearms.”

Smith said gun crime is often associated with the illicit drug trade.

“We are finding more and more that, when we intercept these individuals and arrest them or if we do search warrants, we are finding guns,” he said.

“We are getting more reports of people being threatened with guns. The pointing of firearms charges have gone up.

“We have seen a significant increase over the last several years, and we have seen a direct correlation between the guns and the gang.”

Where do these guns come from?

In an interview with Cabin Radio, Sgt Marshall McPhail, who works for RCMP’s territorial crime reduction unit, said he couldn’t speak about this summer’s firearm-related crime because those investigations are ongoing.

Speaking more generally about offences committed between 2023 and 2025, McPhail said the guns used – or suspected of being used – in those crimes were largely sourced domestically.

Sometimes, guns recovered during investigations turn out to have been smuggled into Canada from the United States. However, McPhail said, tracing exactly where those guns came from isn’t necessarily straightforward. Often, plenty of time elapses between when a gun was last known to be in the US and when it was eventually recovered in the NWT.

“We don’t know how many times those guns have changed hands or when they would have come across the border,” said McPhail.

“With non-restricted firearms, our ability to trace those firearms is diminished because there’s no requirement to keep track of who owns those – so we don’t know necessarily when and where they they came from before the crime.”

Non-restricted guns include many rifles and shotguns that people may use for sustenance hunting or sport shooting in the NWT, McPhail said, while restricted firearms must be registered to a licence-holder according to Canadian law.

According to McPhail, the weapons seized during the NWT crime reduction unit’s investigations are primarily handguns.

Once a gun is seized, McPhail said, RCMP submit the weapon’s serial number to a national firearm tracing centre in Ottawa.

If a gun has had its serial number destroyed, it can be sent to a specialized lab outside the territory where identifying digits can be reconstructed.

Tackling gun crime

Smith has previously asked the territorial government for the likes of highway cameras, licence plate readers and electronic offender monitoring to help bolster crime prevention efforts.

He told Cabin Radio the current level of gun-related crime needs more than just enforcement.

To Smith, early education about the harms caused by the illicit drug trade is an important step – “making sure people are informed about not only what’s out there, but the jeopardy they face by getting involved.”

“It’s not as glorious as you might see on TV,” he said, “It is a dangerous, dangerous trade – as we are seeing up here – and it causes great harm not only to the individuals involved, but the whole community.”

Smith said RCMP and the territory’s Department of Justice have met with communities and leaders to try to create a more coordinated approach.

“Police investigations are like a vehicle: If you don’t have any fuel, it doesn’t go anywhere, and fuel for an investigation is information,” said Smith.

“The biggest thing we need is for communities to stand tall and take a stand against people bringing this poison and this violence into the communities from outside.

“We’re always available to talk, and we certainly want to work with all the communities in trying to remedy this issue.”

He said he’d like to see collaboration from leadership across the NWT to tackle gun violence.

“We are guests in this territory. We shouldn’t be thinking we are going to come in with all the solutions and answers and guide everybody into where we need to be,” said Smith.

“It needs to be a whole-of-government and whole-of-territory approach where we all stand together and work toward this common goal.”

Alice Twa contributed reporting.