By Klaus Rohrich
Friday, May 25, 2007
...to make a fool of himself, and by extension, the City of Toronto. As if a physician had whacked the Mayor's knee with one of those funny triangular rubber hammers, Miller jerked it the moment he heard there was yet another shooting in Toronto, this time at a school. His call for the abolition of guns betrays either a profound ignorance of the laws of Canada or a disingenuousness bordering on the pathological.
Mr. Miller, in case you do not know this, in Canada it is extremely difficult to legally obtain a handgun. Here's how it works: you have to take a written and a practical course that demonstrates to the satisfaction of the examiner that you have enough knowledge about gun safety to be trusted having one without supervision. You also have to undergo an extensive background check that takes months to complete to assure the National Gun Registry that you are not a criminal, mentally unstable or even violently inclined. If you are recently separated or divorced, good luck trying to get that certificate allowing you to acquire a firearm. Now, in order to legally obtain handguns, one also has to belong to a shooting club or be a legitimate collector before that permit is issued.
I can personally assure you, Mr. Miller, that none of the handguns currently being used by criminals to kill each other as well as innocent bystanders are handguns that are licensed or legally obtained. I can also assure you, Mr. Miller that outlawing handguns will not reduce the incidence of murder by handguns in Toronto one iota, as criminals are dealing these guns. Other jurisdictions, such as Britain and Australia have seen a marked increase in violent crimes and gun crimes, in particular since they have banned private ownership of guns. Should Canada follow suit, the same will happen here.
Miller's attempt to blame Toronto's crime problem on the "gun culture" of the US is a pathetic effort to redirect responsibility for this marked decline. And, as my colleague Art Weinreb stated elsewhere in these pages, Miller's interests are mostly centered around the advancement of his precious socialist ideology, rather than actually solving the problem of gang crime that's become an everyday part of Toronto since Miller's ascent to the Mayor's office.
If Miller were really interested in solving this problem then he would be open to considering solutions that fall outside his limited repertoire of socialist drivel. There was a time when New York City had problems similar to those facing Toronto today, yet they were solved by a Mayor who was everything David Miller isn't. Rudi Giuliani showed New Yorkers that they were not helpless and that crime could be brought under some semblance of control. He started off with what he called the "broken window theory", meaning that if the authorities cracked down on petty crime, such as vandalism and aggressive panhandling, then it would discourage more serious crimes because it sent the message that no crime will be tolerated.
Mayor Miller, however, doesn't have the stomach to deal with petty crime in Toronto, as is evidenced by the overly aggressive panhandlers one finds on practically every street corner. It's gotten so bad here that the tables have turned as New Yorkers are being warned about coming to Toronto because of our crime problems. The so-called "new broom" even failed to deliver on his most fundamental campaign promise to clean up Toronto, as litter and garbage can be found all over the streets.
The only conclusions that one can draw from how Toronto's civic leaders are dealing with the city's challenges is that they are either incapable of grasping the depth of the problems or they don't care to venture a solution lest it change the status quo. Either way, law-abiding citizens of Toronto lose.
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