Only one in ten gun crimes busted by police in B.C. result in a conviction in the courts, statistics obtained by CTV News show.
Despite a growing number of gang-related shootings, numbers obtained from B.C.'s Criminal Justice Branch show that people accused of gun crimes have an 87 per cent chance of going free.
"Any time you have people escaping justice, our streets are less safe," said Darryl Plecas of the University College of the Fraser Valley.
But Neil MacKenzie of the Criminal Justice Branch defended the prosecutors' records, saying that while gun charges are often stayed, in many cases that is to obtain a conviction on another count in the same case.
Prosecutors must present a case fairly and don't measure winning as a standard of success, he said.
"As a branch we don't measure whether a prosecution is successful based on whether a conviction is obtained," he said.
In 2002, there were 2381 separate firearms counts recommended by police. Of those, about half were laid as charges by prosecutors, and of those, 435 convictions were obtained. That adds up to about half the charges laid, and about 18 per cent convicted.
In 2008, there were almost twice as many counts recommended, at 4215. Of those, about half were laid again, but the number convicted dropped to 13 per cent.
That means almost nine out of ten times, the recommended charge did not result in a conviction.
Part of the reason is that accused criminals have access to good lawyers -- and they know about ways to beat the charges, said Plecas.
"We've known for a long time that offenders are changing the way in which they do those crimes so they can skirt law enforcement and prosecution," he said.
The Ministry of Attorney-General have made strides in fighting the advances of the accused, including having a training seminar, appointing a dedicated counsel, and bringing in the RCMP to advise them on gun cases.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jon Woodward
