| Terry
Stratton, Senator Red River (MB) Deputy Leader of the Opposition
STOPPING GUN VIOLENCE OTTAWA - Senator Terry Stratton issued the following news column today, highlighting the Liberals’ failure to curtail gun violence. Please feel free to use this column or contact Senator Stratton for further comment. - 30 - For more information, contact
Senator Stratton’s office at (613) 947-2224 STOPPING GUN VIOLENCE Gang and drug-related violence have resulted in 33 people being shot and killed in Toronto so far this year. To help stop this violence we need to ask two key questions: 1) what are the root causes underlying it, and, 2) how do we end the unprecedented use of guns that give the violence its deathly edge? Frankly, the answers are not clearcut, however, we need to make some serious efforts to tease them out and gain some understanding of the problem and take some action. This is the only way to end the shootings and deaths in Toronto and to prevent similar violence from springing up in other Canadian cities and towns. In a recent Globe and Mail editorial, Margaret Wente cited a well-known study by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, which found that families were critical in determining how a child’s character and abilities developed. As Ms. Wente stated”
I believe that it is now time to take off our rose-coloured glasses and look at what is really going on. I am not discounting the myriad of factors that are involved in determining how a child turns out. I am pointing to the reality that families matter and we need to support them. If we don’t, all of us face the consequences. This Liberal Government claims to have made some effort through its “Renewed” Drug Strategy. But it really is just a rehashing of the original drug strategy. Even the recent announcement of tougher sentences for crystal meth producers ring hollow, because it does nothing to help the person caught in the trap of addiction. What is needed is a solution that targets the root problems that offer hope to addicts and hits the producers and traffickers. When it comes to guns, we need to recognize that current policies to control gun ownership are not working. Almost a quarter of people carrying guns that apprehended by the police are already prohibited from having them as a result of a previous conviction. Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair recently said, "It's quite apparent that for those individuals those prohibitions have very little effect." The long-gun registry, which was partly intended to reign in the violent use of firearms, has failed. To date some $2 billion has already been spent on the program, about $100 million a year including direct and indirect costs. That is an obscene amount of money to spend on a program that does not work. It’s time for a different strategy. To end violent gun use, we need to clamp down hard. This includes mandatory minimum sentences for violent and repeat offenders, strict monitoring of high-risk individuals, and more enforcement at the borders where guns are smuggled in. Given the urgency of this situation and the need for action, the money being spent on the long-gun registry must be put to better use, specifically on measures that will stop the violent use of guns and will shore up support for families. To continue wasting taxpayers’ dollars on policies that do not work is wrong. Some 33 people are already dead. We need to stop the violence now before more people die. This means developing and implementing responsible policies that target the root problems underlying the violence. Only then will we have a real solution. |