Shootings are up in London as police confiscate more illegal guns than ever..

Investigators say the four armed men who robbed Anstett Jewellers in mid-May before a high speed shoot-out with police, for example, were armed with automatic rifles..

They've been banned in Canada since 1978, and are among many illegal firearms now being found in the city,  including  semi-automatic handguns, machine pistols, and magnums.

In fact, over the first 9 months of this year they've seized 202 firearms compared to 223 all last year.

And more guns, police say, are leading to more shootings. There had been 16 shooting in London by October of this year..

In almost all cases, investigators say, the shootings are tied to drugs. Some of them even involve gangs from Toronto looking to expand their turf.

Police say that people in general are becoming more aggressive and angry, and an increasing number of paranoid and violent crystal meth addicts, for example, are using them to protect their stash. 

Although most gunplay still involves criminals shooting at other criminals, many police officers figure it's only a matter of time before one of them or a citizen gets caught in the crossfire.

PART TWO 

Hundreds of illegal firearms are brought across the border including the " Cobray 12 Gauge Shotgun"  which is known as " The Street Sweeper". 

A 20 year old man wearing two bullet-proof vests was stopped near William and Huron Streets recently and inside his car police found an assortment of illegal weapons, including a fully loaded machine pistol traced to a gun store in the state of Washington.

The Prime Minister maintains that up to half of all gun crimes in this country involve weapons from across the border, although neither Paul Martin nor the Justice Department can produce the numbers to back up that claim. Over the past 5 years gun seizures have remained relatively stable at the crossings in Sarnia..... and in Windsor where upwards of 150 are seized annually.

Clearly, many of them aren't being found because only 5 percent of the 18 million vehicles crossing the border at Sarnia and Windsor every year are being pulled over for secondary inspections.

 On the streets of London illegal firearms are being found when you'd expect... during drug busts... and when you might not expect.. during routine traffic stops.

PART THREE

London Police say illegal guns are here to stay, but it doesn't mean police are throwing in the towel.

It may be unnerving for those who obey the laws to learned that 357 Magnums are being carried by some Londoners.

And it's certainly disconcerting for may lawful gun owners who do what they can to make sure their firearms don't end up in the hands of criminals. They abide by storage regulations and keep their firearms under lock and key. Many even put trigger locks on all their firearms as well

Still, criminals don't think twice about breaking into some of the 11 million Canadian homes which have legal registered firearms in them.

Authorities, meanwhile, try to stem the flow of illegal guns into the country by land and on the water, but there is a huge black market for them. Traffickers say firearms give them a far begger bang for their buck than the smuggling of people or cigarettes.

London Police say more police are needed to help control the problem and tougher laws are required for those caught with an illegal weapon.