Federal agencies are trying to boost efforts to trace the origins of guns used in crimes, but it appears jurisdictional hurdles could prevent the measures from going as far as some would like.
The federal government says the R-C-M-P has introduced a new mandatory tracing policy, meaning that in places where the Mounties are the police of jurisdiction, seized illegal guns will automatically be sent to the force's national firearms tracing centre.
The Commons public safety committee and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police have called on the government to make it mandatory that all crime guns recovered during investigations by police across the country be submitted for tracing.
The most recent figures indicate only a small fraction of the tens of thousands of crime guns recovered each year are being traced.
In a response to the committee's April report on reducing gun and gang violence, the federal government says tracing is a key tool to determine the sources of illicit firearms.
But the government stops short of a pledge to make the tracing of all crime guns a requirement.