While gun violence is often a hot topic in the U.S., a safety expert is cautioning Canadians about weapons on this side of the border, after a 14-year-old girl was shot and killed in Toronto.

Lecent Ross was fatally shot in a friend's home on Thursday morning.

Police recovered an illegal .40 calibre Smith & Wesson gun from the scene and say they are investigating the weapon for fingerprints and DNA.

"(Ross) died of a gunshot wound fired from an illegal, prohibited, semi-automatic handgun," Toronto Police Det. Rich Petrie said Thursday.

The tragic death, which police are calling "suspicious," has prompted concerns about illegal weapons in the country.

According to Statistics Canada, there were 5,575 violent Criminal Code offences using a firearm in 2012. Of these, 137 were homicides, and 4 other violations caused death.

The majority of gun-related deaths in Canada are not murders, however, but suicides or accidents.

In 2011, Statistics Canada reported a total of 518 deaths due to “intentional self-harm” involving guns. That same year, the agency reported 16 accidental deaths involving guns.

Guns illegally make their way into Canadians' hands in one of three ways, public safety analyst Chris Lewis said Friday. According to Lewis, a former Ontario Provincial Police commissioner, weapons are:

  • Stolen within the country
  • Smuggled into Canada from other countries, mostly from the U.S.
  • Bought and sold in "straw purchases," which happen when somebody legally buys a gun and illegally sells it to somebody else

For example, Lewis said, a criminal who is not allowed to buy a gun could ask a friend or associate to legally buy one and re-sell it.

Canada already has laws that regulate who can purchase a gun and how it should be safely stored, but Lewis said more needs to be done to monitor gun purchases.

For example, he said, lawmakers could make it mandatory to report whenever somebody purchases multiple handguns, or whenever somebody in a neighbourhood buys a weapon.

Unfortunately, he said, police resources are often stretched thin, focusing on issues such as terror and radicalization, rather than illegal weapons and drug-related crimes.

"The RCMP have diverted many resources, as have the OPP and presumably the Toronto police," he said. "So some of these other things are falling off the plate."

As Ross's community mourns her death, Lewis said tighter controls on handguns could help lower the risk of a repeat tragedy.

"They’re bought for illegal purposes," he said. "Handguns kill people."