Guns in Windsor-Essex: what's new, and what's still unknown

Guns in Windsor-Essex, November check: CBSA: 150 guns at bridge and tunnel, Jan to Oct 2025. StatCan: 156 firearm violent crimes in 2024 (was 108). 2 Windsor cases since Oct 26 where police say a gun was fired. No public count of illegal guns found.

By Kyle L. Stewart | Published Nov. 10, 2026, 8 p.m. ET | Windsor, Ontario

Topics: Public safety Roads and transit

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In our Oct. 24 explainer, we found that no public figure counts the illegal guns in Windsor-Essex, and that the official numbers that do exist do not all point the same way. That is still true. Here is what has been added to the public record since then.

At the border

The Canada Border Services Agency said on Nov. 4 that its officers in southern Ontario seized 23 undeclared firearms in two weeks. AM800 and WindsorNewsToday reported, citing the CBSA, that at least 11 of them were seized at the Gordie Howe International Bridge, the Ambassador Bridge and the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel between Oct. 18 and Nov. 1. A 35-year-old man from Columbus, Ohio, was arrested and charged with firearms offences after a seizure at the Gordie Howe bridge on Oct. 21, according to the CBSA. The other travellers paid fines.

Weekly CBSA reports have described similar seizures at the three Windsor crossings since at least August. For a full year, the most recent published figure is still the CBSA's count of 150 firearms seized at the Ambassador Bridge and the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, 2025.

In court

Frank Charette, 60, of Cottam is due in a Windsor court on Nov. 16, the CBSA says. He faces 10 charges after CBSA-led searches in Essex County on July 15, 2026, that the agency says turned up 53 firearms, including six handguns and two sub-machine guns. The charges have not been proven in court.

Recent cases

Windsor Police have announced two cases since Oct. 26 in which they say a gun was fired during an attack or a robbery. Both cases are allegations, and none of the charges has been proven in court.

Campbell Avenue (Oct. 26): police say a person was lured to a home, confined, threatened with a handgun and assaulted, and that a suspect fired a round into the floor near the victim's feet. Three people have been arrested, and a warrant has been issued for William J. Dufour, 45. Police ask anyone who knows where he is to call the Major Crimes Unit at 519-255-6700, ext. 4830.

Mill Street (Oct. 28): police say two men tried to leave a convenience store without paying, one threatened an employee with a knife and one fired a gun into the ground before they fled. No one was physically hurt. Local media reported on Nov. 6 that two men had been arrested and charged. We have not found a Windsor Police release on the arrests.

In a Tuesday update, Windsor Police said they have charged Michael Samuel Rainone, 62, and Justin Spineti, 38, with firearms offences after officers seized a loaded, unserialized 3D-printed 9 mm handgun during the Oct. 26 Campbell Avenue investigation. Police say the gun was found in Spineti's vehicle, with a live round in the chamber, after Rainone was arrested on Nov. 5 following an armed standoff in the Town of Essex, and that Spineti was arrested on Nov. 7. Rainone also faces five counts of possessing a firearm contrary to a prohibition order. The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court. Police say William J. Dufour, 45, remains outstanding.

The money

Ontario's list of 2025-2026 Community Safety and Policing grants shows the Windsor Police Service Board receiving $1,775,771 for two local projects and $500,000 for a provincial-priority project. AM800 reported that the money pays for the Problem-Oriented Policing Unit, the Crisis Response Team and the Nurse Police Team. In those descriptions, none of the three is a gun program.

The federal Building Safer Communities Fund, which pays for youth gun and gang prevention, lists $2,904,415.43 for the City of Windsor, and the agreement now runs to March 31, 2027. In our Oct. 28 follow-up, we found no public report on what that money achieved.

What is still not known

How many illegal guns are in Windsor-Essex. We found no public count.

Whether gun crime went up or down in 2025. Statistics Canada's latest figures are for 2024, when police in the Windsor area reported 156 firearm-related violent crimes, up from 108 in 2023. Windsor Police counted 61 crime guns in 2025, 9% fewer than in 2024, but the two counts use different measures.

How many of the guns seized at the border were headed for crime here. CBSA reports say most recent seizures were from U.S. travellers who were fined, and they do not say where the guns were going.

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