Gun Violence and Gun Control

Gun Violence and Gun Control

July 17, 2012

Wow. Two guys got into an argument at a community barbecue in Toronto and pulled out guns and started shooting at each other. Two people are dead, a 14 year old girl, and a 23 year old guy. Twenty-one other people are injured, including a two-year-old.

People who support mass gun ownership and people being armed in public places say everyone is safer if everyone is armed because someone will shoot troublemakers before anyone else gets hurt. Both these guys had guns. Seems they managed to shoot lots of other people without actually hitting each other. Had there been other people there with guns and a mindset that they should use them to put a stop to this, I postulate that the carnage would have been even greater. Real life is not like the movies. Even if Bruce Willis' characters, or Clint Eastwoods' or Vin Diesel's or any other action hero you can think of, can pick off someone in a crowd with deadly accuracy, that does not mean the average Joe with a gun can do the same. It's a movie. Everyone is where they are supposed to be, and the bullets aren't real.

Real crowds move erratically, especially when everyone starts to panic. People were trampled in the rush to get out of the area. There was, I imagine, total chaos. Unless you are a trained sharp-shooter, the chances of actually being able to get a clean shot at a perpetrator are probably a lot lower than being hit by lightening. The chances of hitting an innocent by-stander or someone lurching wildly through the scene trying to get away, on the other hand, seem pretty darn good. Even sharp-shooters and snipers miss sometimes.

Gun proponents would say that gun control regulations did not prevent these two individuals from bringing guns to a barbecue. This is true. It shows that a lot more needs to be done to prevent illegal weapons from getting into Canada. A lot more needs to be done to prevent legally owned guns from falling into the hands of criminals after being stolen as well. Arming average citizens is so not the answer. We just can't have random people trying to be vigilantes. Even people who score pretty well shooting targets at a shooting range are totally unqualified to draw a weapon and fire it in an emergency. The additional risk to everyone around, and to the shooter himself or herself, is just too high.

The scenario of a gunman, or gunmen, opening fire in a crowd, is horrific. It should never happen. But if it does, the last thing anyone needs is some would-be Rambo trying to shoot the bad guys.

What this event teaches us, once again, is that the flow of illegal guns into Canada (mostly from the US) needs to be far more closely monitored and prevented. I am far more concerned about guns and other weapons coming across the border than drugs. And yet, while we hear a lot about drug busts at the border, and while that seems to be what border officers are looking for when they pull your luggage or vehicle apart, you don't hear a lot about shipments of guns being intercepted. Storage of legal guns in homes and commercial enterprises needs to be enhanced so they cannot be stolen. A gun safe should be as impenetrable as a money safe, and as heavy. I get having a long gun for hunting and protecting your livestock from predators. Ok, I don't really get hunting, but I accept that some people really like doing that. But there has to be safeguards to keep weapons out of the hands of people who would use them against other people.

We need to take firearms out of the crime equation. Yes, a deranged person with a knife is pretty scary too, but they have to get close to do any real damage. A gun can kill from a distance, and a bullet can fly stray or ricochet, as is evidenced by this tragedy in Toronto last night.. And while there are many good reasons to own a knife – to cut food, for instance – there are few, if any, good reasons for the average citizen to own a hand-gun.