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The Toronto Sun DATE: 2005.08.02 EDITION: Final SECTION: Editorial/Opinion PAGE: 18 COLUMN: Editorial -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TWELVE HOURS; three gun murders. Those are the kind of crime statistics that matter to ordinary Torontonians. Especially those who live in areas of this city routinely terrorized by gun violence. Especially when they come so soon after six shootings in two hours on July 25. Sadly, it's only after such frightening sprees that our so-called leaders are pressured into talking about gun crime. Sadder still, their response is usually to bleat that stats show violent crime is actually down from decades ago, and the real problem is that the nasty Americans are letting too many of their beloved guns get smuggled up here. Meanwhile, three more men of colour -- two in their 20s; one a 46-year-old dad of two -- are dead and another blood-soaked weekend goes into the record books. What the statistics never show is that we're seeing a very different kind of crime than we were decades ago. Take the shooting on Dundas Square at 4:30 a.m. Sunday: This determined killer fired three times in a public place, clearly not caring about hitting innocent bystanders, or about the huge police presence and security cameras. Police suspect it was a gang-related murder. No surprise there. Then there's the shooting in Lawrence Heights, where Leroy Whittaker was shot through an apartment door, in front of a 10-year-old boy. "It should make everybody sick to their stomach," said Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux. "I hope ...the community is outraged that somebody would fire a gun through a door, not having any idea who's on the other side." Such brazenness in all these murders (the third was outside a Scarborough strip mall) is utterly chilling. As is the suggestion that Whittaker's murder might be linked to a shooting July 24 at a memorial event for two young black community leaders -- both of whom were murdered in 2001 in a similar spate of senseless gun violence. And so it goes. Yesterday, Customs agents and Ontario Conservative leader John Tory were among those calling for a crackdown on gun smuggling. That's good, but not enough. Where are the calls for serious sentences for serious crimes, especially gang violence involving guns? A five-year minimum prison term just for getting caught with a gun would help make a lot of these thugs a lot less brazen -- plus, say, a minimum 10 years for using it. But our leaders always seem to go silent when such numbers are raised. How many more bloody weekends will it take to add up to some action on their level? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BREITKREUZ QUOTE: "Isn't it odd that the government would state categorically that mandatory minimum sentences do not work to curtail the criminal use of firearms but (in the face of all evidence to the contrary) that the gun registry does?" STATISTICS CANADA CONTRADICTS
JUSTICE MINISTER ON EFFECTIVNESS OF MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES - ESPECIALLY
FOR FIREARMS LEGISLATION |