My question is, was Mark Saunders deliberately lying for political reasons, or is Mark Saunders just too dumb to read his own department's statistics properly?
Mark Saunders is in a position where he's as close to a politician as you can get without actually officially being one. Let's consider him mayor John Tory's Secretary of Defense, like an appointed politician in the US.
Why wouldn't he lie? It's much better for police if more handguns are banned, makes their jobs a bit safer, and also the less guns in the hands of citizens the more powerful the armed police become.
re: your stats, what are the 2017 stats? Also, as I said when the Danforth shooting happened, guns are only half the problem, one of the roots of this matter is what's going on in these people's brains and what kind of horrible, horrible job are these young men's parent(s) doing to raise these fools?