Just One More Law!

Stretch sends in another story of violence due to the American gun culture. Oh, wait...

Toronto police name 2 victims of east-end shooting

Toronto police say that 23 people were wounded in the deadly shootout that erupted at a Scarborough block party on Monday night, in addition to a teenage girl and young man who were killed.

Det. Sgt. Graham Gibson of the homicide squad identified the deceased during a news conference on Tuesday afternoon as Joshua Yasay, 23, of Ajax, Ont., and Shyanne Charles, 14, of Toronto.

There's a lot that's not right with this story. First off, Canada has gun laws that make Massachusetts look lenient. How did two thugs get ahold of handguns? From all reports, there were at least two people firing weapons - this is in a place where concealed carry is completely illegal, and handguns with barrel lengths under 5" are prohibited from being owned. And yet two thugs managed to get ahold of pistols and blaze away over an argument at a street party.

There's another thing. One of the injured was a 22-month old toddler, grazed by a passing bullet. Who the hell has a toddler at a street party at 20 minutes of 11 on a Monday night? This isn't the kind of problem that can be solved by waving the magic banhammer and producing a new gun law or 12. This is a profound societal problem when folks see no problem with bringing toddlers to street parties that go until all hours of the night and are attended by thugs.

And this?

Police investigating possible gang involvement

I'm going to go out on a real narrow limb here and say yes, this had something to do with gang violence. Whether it was gang members doing the shooting, or supplying the guns, or maybe just the recreational narcotics that warp one's mind enough to think that firing into a crowd is a reasonable response to a perceived slight, I suspect that some sort of gang affiliation for at least one party will be discovered. This ain't rocket science, folks.

At the end of the article is a run down of shootings in Toronto. There have been over 140 shootings so far this year, with 18 homicides via firearms. This in a place with no CCW at all and stringent regulations on the mere ownership of handguns. And yet, people still get their hands on guns, they still misuse them, they still shoot other people with them. What laws could be passed to stop this? Make all handguns illegal, like "Great" Britain?

I know, I know. That horse is dead, has been dead for a while, and beating it isn't going to bring it back to life. It's just sad that we continue to focus on the tool used rather than the motivation behind the person picking up the tool - why do these people think that firing into a crowd over a perceived slight is an acceptable response? Barring that, why do they think so little of the criminal justice system and punishment that it's no deterrent to cold blooded murder?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Unless and until we get serious about punishing those that misuse firearms, don't talk to me about gun control. Until criminals are punished to the full extent of existing law for breaking said laws, don't tell me that we need "common sense" gun laws. Don't tell me that we need to ban "assault weapons" or "Saturday night specials" or whatnot when our justice system can't adequately punish those that break the laws that are already on the books.

Or, we can continue down the path of restricting access to firearms like Canada, and see where that gets us...

That is all.