Those on the left of the political spectrum love to scoff at the notion that "guns don’t kill people; people kill people". Ban guns and all will be right with the world. Banning guns and molly coddling potential killers with state sponsored outreach programs will reduce crime. Those that think that social programs are the answer to everything have been doing it their way for the past 40 years and as an example, the city of Toronto has recorded a record number of gun deaths. When will they ever learn this approach simply doesn’t work?
Last Friday, 25-year-old Cordell Charles Skinner was shot and killed outside an apartment complex at in the Jane/Finch area of northwest Toronto. No one else was hit by the multiple shots that were fired and according to police Skinner was clearly the intended target of the hit.
With the exception of a few close friends and relatives, Skinner will be mostly remembered as a statistic — the 77th homicide victim of 2005 and the 51st to die at the hands of a gun. But this murder was different — it had a horrific aspect to it.
Skinner was shot to death within metres of a daycare centre. That in itself was nothing new. The gun shots that were fired close to the centre were not the first to be fired in close proximity to either a daycare centre or an elementary school. What made this incident different was the time of day that the shooting took place.
Skinner was breathing his last around 5:30 in the afternoon; the same time that many parents had finished work and were in the process of picking up their children. The police reported that some mothers threw their bodies over those of their toddlers and children in an attempt to shield them from the bullets that luckily never came. If one of the kids had been hurt, it wouldn’t have been the first time — last summer 4-year-old Shaquan Cadougan was shot while sitting outside of his home with his family. It will be only a matter of time before a child or children will be killed by the rampant gunfire that is an almost everyday occurrence in certain areas of the city.
Prime Minister Paul Martin’s solution to solving the problem is to ban handguns while offering up tougher gun laws that simply won’t work. The reality is that Martin doesn’t care about the people who have to live with this violence on a day to day basis. To him these people are nothing but a bunch of beer swilling popcorn eaters who serve no real purpose in society unless he can get them to go out to the polls and vote Liberal so he can maintain what he feels is his birthright — power.
While Paul Martin can afford to express his indignation at Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe about how worried he is that the country in which his kids were born will be broken up, parents that live in areas such as Jane and Finch worry about such things as whether or not their kids will end up in body bags before they reach puberty. The disconnect between Paul Martin and the reality of the lives of too many Canadians is startling.
While the first reaction of Canadian politicians is to blame the United States for the escalation of gun violence, there is anecdotal evidence that there are not many more guns coming into the city than there were a few years ago. What we are seeing is not more guns, but guns being used more; in brazen ways that were unheard of five or ten years ago. Where in the past gang members would use guns for self defense or to blow away someone who had ripped them off, they now shoot people who have "dissed" them. and where shootings used to be carried out in secluded areas during the middle of the night, they are now taking place near daycare centres or schools, on public transit or in crowded shopping malls at any hour of the day or night. The guns aren’t the problem — the shooters are.
The arrogance that Paul Martin and the Liberals have for Canadians in general is also directed at potential shooters. They think that these people are simply not bright enough to get a hold of guns from other countries if a ban is put into effect in Canada. and they can’t seem to grasp the reality that anyone who risks death in a shootout or a life sentence for using a handgun will refrain from doing so because of the imposition of the Mickey Mouse minimum sentences that they are advocating. Political expediency and feel good legislation is trumping dealing with the bad guys.
Lefties such as Toronto Mayor David Miller can at least be forgiven for their Kumbayah approach because they are blinded by a totally unrealistic ideology. But Martin and his Liberals use violent crime to score cheap political points.
and to make it all worse, if Martin and his Liberals are reelected they want to construct more daycare centres — more targets for parents to worry about.
People are the problem. and unless the politicians realize this, the shootings will just go on and on.