There is an evil entity called Mr. Gun.

[Cranky]

Read some papers in Toronto and you will see huge banner declaring how "Gun killed people". "Gun", like guns are an entity in themselves, going around and killing people. Of course it's not the gangs and the drug lords who are doing the killing, it's that evil entity, Mr. Gun.

Twenty five years ago, I moved to Toronto and the first place we could afford to live in was the Albion/Finch region. Back then, it had a reputation for simmering gang action and it was not unusually to have a death or two related to gang violence. Today, the entire north/western region of Toronto is plague with gangs and drugs lords but of course, this is not the REAL problem, the REAL problem is Mr. Gun. Yes-sir, Mr. Gun is an evil entity that sells drugs, breaks into peoples homes, commits rapes and rides around in cars, just waiting for the opportunity to kill you. Certain politicians tell us that if we vote for them, then they can excrete a few law against the evil Mr. Gun then everything will smell beutiful. In fact, if we just "believe and trust" those politicians, they can let lose with a diarrhea of laws that will turn our society into utopia.

It's disgusting how politician think that we are all morons and we are going to buy into their blame game. Guns are not anything more then tools the gangs and the drug lords use to ply their trade. There are many laws in the books related to criminal action with the use of guns but they mean nothing if the court system just releases these criminal back to society. Just recently, a man who was convicted of a violent crime and a known gangbanger was released after just a few short years to seeing the "error of his ways". He was found dead. Did the headline say anything about gangs or drugs? No, it was that evil entity Mr. Gun who stalked and killed him.

Politicians like Martin and Miller are breeding the gangs and the drug trade by not dealing with the cause of the violence. They much rather divert people attention away from true cause of all this and focusing on the tools they use. After all, it's much easier for politicians to scream and look good by dealing with a tool rather then the human causes. We need more effective policing, we need the courts to enforce the laws ALLREADY IN THE BOOKS, we need the justice department not to let lose violent criminals on us. Right NOW, BY the guidance of the liberal politicians, the penal system releases younger criminals in the HOPE that they have a better chance of "reintgrating" in our society. That's just plain bullSaperlipopette. More often then not, they go back to their old way of stricking it rich and on top of that, it makes a mockery of the the justice system being a effective tool to stop crime. Why would any young person NOT take a chance on crime if at best he has a small chance of being caught and even if he/she is caught, he will be slapped on the wrist for a few years and let go. Why work for ten dollars an hour when you can make a drug deal and make thousands in a few minutes?

If the present route of the current politicians keeps going, Toronto will turn into just another North American city, pleuged with violence and death. Twenty years ago, my wife and I would be in the same spot that the young lady died in a few days ago. We could have been the victim. YOU could have been the victim. Blame the death on the gangs, drug lords..........and the liberal minded politicians whose policies, inaction and public misdirection breeds them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is are the headlines and the associated support for politicians. There is no subtlety in how slanted they present the news.

The Toronto Sun...who is not a Martin or Miller supporter.

Headline: First murder of 2006 takes place just hours after the new year begins

www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2006/01/02/1375833-sun.html

Toronto Star...a huge Miller/Martin supporter.

Headline: City Hall prayer vigil for gun victims

www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1136207645330&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

[Toronthab]

"A child without a father is like a house without a roof." --A Buddhist saying

Sons:
Boys with strong, warm, nurturing fathers, it now appears, are more socially competent, more persistent at solving problems and more self-directed. On the other hand, when the father isn't present either physically or emotionally, boys tend to be more aggressive and less compliant. They have greater problems in preschool. They don't obey their mothers as well. They have problems in peer relationships, tending either to play alone or to play with younger children. Fathers are not substitutes for mothers. The father's physical, robust approach to the child complements and contrasts with the mother's more verbal, slow-paced style. Fathers tend to allow children to roam farther, climb farther and take more chances. (Radin)

Studies of young criminals have found that more than 70% of all juveniles in state reform institutions come from fatherless homes. (TIME, June, 1993). Many young men without fathers have turned violent. The absence of fathers from so many families has left the sons in our society to search for the boundaries of acceptable behavior on their own (Huston). For boys the crucial issue is role modeling. "Boys without fathers risk growing up with low self-esteem, and becoming overly dependent on women. "Boys have to find their own way of doing things, so they end up with ideas from their friends and gangs," says Melissa Manning, a social worker at the Boys and Girls Club in Venice, CA.

[PTH]

Of course, eliminating guns from the streets would turn gang hit squads into nasty people with baseball bats. Somehow I'm more comfortable with gangs having less, rather than more, firepower.

I mean, if firepower is unrelated to violent deaths, why not legalise hand grenades and fully automatic weapons? I'd love to mount a 20mm Oerlikon on my car.

[franko]

If making handguns illegal would get them off the streets I'd be all in favour of it. Somehow, though, I don't see the baddies saying "having a gun is wrong -- I'd better turn mine in (in Ottawa where there is a cash-for-illegal-guns deal on now) and be nice from now on.

Not sure that more jail time is a deterent either, though . . . don't know what the answer is but I notice that even with 2 billion dollars spent on a gun registry there are still shooting deaths.

[PTH]

Oh, and HA, about "re-integrating" criminals, Quebec has a very progressive policy, and yet Montreal has just had the 4th year in a row with less homicides than the year before. 2005 saw 35 murders in the Montreal Urban Community. That's about 35 too many, but still, the death toll is going down, in Montreal. Maybe Montreal and Quebec just need a different approach than what's being proposed out West.

Wouldn't surprise me; Quebec is a distinct society, after all.

[franko]

pth said:

Oh, and HA, about "re-integrating" criminals, Quebec has a very progressive policy, and yet Montreal has just had the 4th year in a row with less homicides than the year before. 2005 saw 35 murders in the Montreal Urban Community. That's about 35 too many, but still, the death toll is going down, in Montreal. Maybe Montreal and Quebec just need a different approach than what's being proposed out West.

Wouldn't surprise me; Quebec is a distinct society, after all.

What is being proposed out west, by the way? Is it tougher gun control laws, lesser gun control laws but harsher penalties, or what? I ask in all seriousness, because it seems that the idea changes with every passing day . . . even the NDP is getting in on the act!

[Cranky]

pth said:

Oh, and HA, about "re-integrating" criminals, Quebec has a very progressive policy, and yet Montreal has just had the 4th year in a row with less homicides than the year before. 2005 saw 35 murders in the Montreal Urban Community. That's about 35 too many, but still, the death toll is going down, in Montreal. Maybe Montreal and Quebec just need a different approach than what's being proposed out West.

Wouldn't surprise me; Quebec is a distinct society, after all.

Distinct? How my buddies the Hells Angels GANG and the Rock Machine GANG doing? You have gangs, we have gangs, distinct but equally troubled.

Anywho...back to Mr. Gun and his gang bangers.........

We have a serious gang problem in Toronto. There are MANY types of gangs and MANY white and ethnic gangs but one of the most notorious ones that I know off when I was living in that area were/are the Jamaican gangs and their DEEP involvement in drugs. Unfortunatly, because of skin colour, it's harder to deal with these gangs because they scream discrimmination if police don't have an air tight case against them. Worse still, some of the imported drug lords of these gangs use our immigration laws like toilet paper to keep from getting deported. And people buy it because Ontario has a deep rooted "victim" mentality. "The "man" is out to get them".

Then there are imported gangs organizing on our streets. Do you know we have the Bloods and the Crips in Toronto? And yet you don't hear about that as a problem, you only hear about "gun violence". You are NEVER going to stop guns from Canadian streets and certainly not from Toronto streets. Not with the biggest gun culture on the planet a few miles south of us. You need to stop the GANGS and the DRUGS that feuls them.

That is why I am so angry at opportunistic, moronic politicians like Martin who promise something that they are fully aware that is just plain old bullSaperlipopette. I don't feel safer with a million gun laws until you get the gangs off the streets.

Bottom line......

The gangs use guns as tools and we are just plain old stupid tools the politicians use to get votes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gang Violence....

cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Special/2005/2005/12/24/1367545-cp.html

[Cranky]

THE REAL PROBLEM!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

torontosun.canoe.ca/News/TorontoAndGTA/2006/01/07/1382889-sun.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


By TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUN

Threats of gang violence reached into City Hall yesterday, scaring away all but one of 14 former gang members from an event intended to attract young people away from the gun culture.

Organizers of the event, including a church pastor, came late to a committee meeting after failing to persuade the 13 frightened youths to attend.

"They couldn't make it because they were threatened," said Monica Willie, president of Choices Mathieu da Costa centre, a group formed to rescue youths from street gangs by offering them trade skills.

"They are very afraid," she said. "Some of these people are in real danger."

Willie said 14 former gang members were to attend the event, but at the last minute they voted for Taj Nelson to speak for them.

"It is very disappointing," Willie said.

"It just shows that they can never leave the family."

She said several of the ex-gang members are actively sought by gunmen and have had to be relocated.

Willie said she is sometimes afraid for her life because of her work in taking members away from gangs.

Choices has rescued 19 gang members in three years.

"The gang members know who these people are who left," Willie said. "They see them on the streets and elsewhere."

The youths receive classroom and on-the-job training from local businessmen.

"These people wouldn't work at McDonald's," Willie said. "But we can get them to learn a trade." (Edit: Notice that not any old job is good enough for gang bangers, they need ELITE jobs to stop killing.)

Nelson, 27, said he had been in and out of trouble before becoming a Choices youth worker.

"We've lost a lot of young people and I don't want to see others go," he said. "We will stand and work with them side by side."

Nelson and other workers visit housing complexes and other problem areas with flyers offering youths an alternative way of life.

"Some of these people may be killers, but they also want jobs," he said. (Edit: Wow, that makes me feels so safe that I want to run out and hire a gang banger.)

"The solution comes from educating kids."

Choices worker Wayne Reid said young people in gangs can be reached and helped.

"The kids are crying out for help and they will eventually end up at your door," Reid said.

"These kids were born here and are Canadians." (Edit: Which entitles them for an easy money, no sweat job.)

~~~~~~~~~~~

But....but....the politicians are saying that guns are the problem. I'm confused. Bah.....how stupid of me not to believe our honest and caring politicians.

[Toronthab]

Young, angry adolescents who have no male role model at home are committing many of the gun crimes in Toronto because gangs are their family, faith leaders said today. Curtis Rush reports.

tinyurl.com/8arjj