Details adverse impact of U.S. gun companies and policies on Canada and Other Countries

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2026 /CNW/ -- A new report from Global Action on Gun Violence lays the groundwork for a greater understanding of the cross-border gun trafficking crisis, the harm this phenomenon causes, and recommendations for decreasing this trafficking pipeline.

Jonathan Lowy, founder and president of Global Action on Gun Violence (GAGV) asserts, "The U.S. gun violence epidemic is causing a regional and global pandemic.  This data confirms that overwhelming majorities of crime guns in Canada and the Caribbean flow directly from U.S. gun shops, as a result of reckless gun industry practices enabled by weak U.S. laws.  GAGV is committed to stopping this crime gun pipeline at the most effective point — the gun industry source.

Gun trafficking is one of the world's greatest threats to public safety, and the United States is the most prolific source of gun trafficking. Guns are brought illicitly from weak gun law states to stronger gun law states and from the U.S. to other nations with far more stringent gun laws.  The result fuels death rates in the United States that are 20 times higher than in comparable countries, contributes to nations in the Americas having the highest death rates in the world, and enables organized crime, gun trafficking, human trafficking, and a host of other public health, human rights and other societal harms.

This report examines one major regional pipeline playing an outsized role: the Great Lakes states along the northern border of the United States, including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.  These states comprise a region significant both because of its close economic connection with, and its contribution to, gun violence in Canada.

Paul Miller, a partner at Howie Sacks & Henry, a Canadian law firm, adds, "This report puts Canada and the Great Lakes Region on the radar as a hotspot for trafficked firearms. We have seen the devastating injuries and harm that gun violence causes families in Canada. Cross-border conversations about this pipeline help us develop strategies to hold those responsible accountable."

Key Findings from the Report (based on trace data from U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives)

• 84.6% of crime guns in Canada are from the U.S.
• Ohio is the leading source of crime guns to Canada and the fourth leading source state of crime guns in the Caribbean; Ohio's weak gun laws, large firearms market, permissive private-sale and gun-show environment, limited dealer oversight, industry protections, and restrictions on local regulation make it uniquely consequential.
• Michigan is the 5^th largest supplier of crime guns. Michigan's recent strengthening of gun laws may reduce its source role over time, but tracing data, to date, does not reflect their impact.
• New York and Illinois have stronger gun laws and do not appear as major source states for Canadian crime guns.
• Indiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota have features that may enable trafficking in some contexts, but the available data indicate that they supply far less guns to the Canada pipeline than Ohio and Michigan. 
• The Great Lakes region also is the source of guns trafficked to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as nations as far as Saudi Arabia and the Ivory Coast.

Recommendations

• Legal and policy reforms, at the federal and state level, can make a difference, as can litigation brought in and outside of the U.S. against negligent gun industry companies who facilitate gun trafficking.
• Policies and industry reforms to reduce the supply of crime guns at the source. Federal reforms should include universal background checks, buyer licensing or individualized vetting, stronger scrutiny of bulk and repeat sales, better dealer oversight, mandatory tracing, and repeal of legal barriers that shield the gun industry from accountability.
• Similar reforms at the state level should prioritize Ohio because of its outsized role. Strategic litigation, as well as enhanced cross-border enforcement on firearms trafficking into Canada.

Global Action on Gun Violence is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending gun violence in the U.S. and throughout the world, using litigation, human rights, advocacy and messaging.  GAGV work includes representing the Government of Mexico in anti-gun trafficking litigation, acting as foreign legal counsel in a Canadian gun lawsuit, and activity in the United Nations, Organization of American States and other international bodies.  GAGV's President, Jonathan Lowy, has litigated anti-trafficking, Second Amendment and other gun cases for over 25 years.  More information is found at actiononguns.org.

GAGV is registered under the FARA as an agent for the Governments of Mexico and the Bahamas. Additional information is available at the U.S Department of Justice, Washington DC.

actiononguns.org ~ info@actiononguns.org ~@actiononguns

SOURCE Global Action on Gun Violence