PUBLICATION:        The Toronto Sun 

DATE:                         2004.03.07

EDITION:                    Final 

SECTION:                  Comment 

PAGE:                         C3 

BYLINE:                     LINDA WILLIAMSON 

COLUMN:                  Second Thoughts 

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FIRST, WE'VE GOT TO CONTROL THE CRIMINALS

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For a country that prides itself on its low, low rate of gun crime (vis-a-vis the big, bad USA), we sure have a funny way of maintaining it.

Our largest city has recently been plagued by gang-related shootings, the young gunmen getting ever more brazen, to the point where several innocent bystanders have been literally caught - and killed - in the crossfire.

While smug statisticians point to overall declining crime rates, Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino points to the blood spilling on his streets. Whatever the stats say, violent crime is up here, and gun crime is mushrooming.

Last week, at last, there were signs the crisis might have reached a tipping point - politically speaking, at least.

For the first time I can recall, federal, provincial and municipal politicians all sat down with the police chief and actually talked about how crime is hurting Toronto.

Unfortunately, talk is all they did. Mayor David Miller, who had clung to the "crime is down" mantra during last fall's civic election, declared gun crime had reached "unacceptable" levels and went so far as to echo Fantino's call for tougher sentences for gun crimes - a positive change.

Local Liberal MPs, no doubt relieved to be discussing something other than their sponsorship scandal, delivered some previously promised money for crime prevention programs. Their leader, MP Art Eggleton (a former Toronto mayor), pledged they "will meet" with federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, "to talk about tougher sentences."

But that was about it. Overall, the politicians, including the provincial ones, shied away from discussing actual law enforcement and talked up the "root causes" of crime instead - stressing the need to build playgrounds, community centres, etc., for troubled youth. (Sadly, though, of the 60 crime-prevention projects the feds announced funding for in Toronto, to the tune of $3.5 million, not one is in the violence-plagued Malvern area, which Miller recently pledged to help.)

All very nice, but community centres won't break up the armed gangs, or take away their guns. Yet the politicians were all but mum on the need to get tough on them.

BLAME AMERICA

Instead, they had plenty to say about getting tough on the guns and where they come from - i.e., America.

Noting police estimates that about half the guns seized in local crime (mostly handguns) are smuggled in from the U.S., Miller called on the feds to talk to their U.S. counterparts about the need for stricter gun control down south.

"We all know the situation in the United States. They have a different attitude toward guns than we do and it's causing a problem in our city," Miller said. "I'm not going to accept that."

Good grief. Now the U.S. is to blame? Look, you can call America the Great Satan all you want, but aren't our borders our responsibility? If people are bringing guns into Canada illegally, why aren't we stopping them?

Miller also noted those guns that don't come from the U.S. are mostly stolen here at home, so he called on the feds to toughen laws governing the storage of firearms.

That sound you hear is gun owners, who are already governed by strict storage laws, tearing their hair out. When someone breaks into a house or robs a bank, do we call for laws requiring better locks and security systems? Is there any evidence gun clubs and firearms retailers are widely ignoring the rules and negligently leaving guns lying around for thugs to grab? I'd like to hear it - otherwise, this argument amounts to nothing more than blaming the victim.

MISSING THE POINT

What Miller and the Grits are missing here - and too many well-meaning Canadians have missed for too long - is that this isn't about gun control. It's about criminal control.

Fantino's figures are stark. Of the 554 suspects his force arrested in a gangs-and-guns blitz last year, 84% already had criminal records. Yet the vast majority got bail, and about half of those (surprise!) violated their bail conditions. The message couldn't be clearer - we don't take gun crimes seriously enough to even hold the suspects behind bars.

Now, I'm well aware, from years of covering the courts and justice issues, that an automatic five- or 10-year prison term, as Fantino has demanded, isn't a perfect solution.

But it's a fine starting point, and one on which all law-abiding people - gun owners, gun-haters, even (gasp!) Americans - can surely agree. So why aren't our politicians acting on it? why aren't they even enforcing existing gun crime sentences?

Apparently our famous national "attitude towards guns" is just that - just attitude. Never mind the murders.

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BREITKREUZ'S PLAN TO KEEP GUNS OUT OF THE HANDS OF PEOPLE WHO SHOULDN'T HAVE THEM

http://www.cssa-cila.org/garryb/breitkreuzgpress/guns114.htm