Over at Being American in T.O., Debbye fosters some fear about gun violence in the Toronto area. She cites three articles which discuss this issue. These articles (from the always reserved and incisive Toronto Sun, which today features three busty starlets on
the masthead) speak of a ‘gun craze’, ‘snapshot of a violent weekend’ and ‘an emergency’. One article offers this wicked quote from Councilor Giorgio Mammoliti: "This is an emergency. And the way you deal with emergencies is through emergency meetings." How is this guy not our prime minister? He also advocated a plan to immediately hire 600 more police officers.
I note with interest that none of the three articles cited actually specify how many gun-related injuries or homicides there have been. One article says that ‘gunplay’ (a vague term in itself) is up 35%.
Let’s pause and consider some facts:
- In 2003, 31 people were killed as a result of gun violence in Toronto.
- In Toronto, it’s estimated that 94% of shootings are believed to be gang-related.
So, if gun-related homicides are up 35%, and (as that 94% figure seems kind of high), 80% of all shootings are gang-related, in 2004, three innocent Torontonians will be killed. 3.35 to be precise. Even if you want to include all of the gangland shootings, roughly 42 people will be killed. 42 people in a city of 2.5 million.
Does this constitute an emergency? I think not.
Compare that with the 511 people shot to death in Chicago in 2002.
Firearm death rates (as for all forms of crime) have been consistently decreasing over the past 25 years. Debbye wonders ‘does a baby have to be killed in cross fire before people wake up?’ Wake up to what? That we’re safer than our parents’ generation was? That the odds of a non-criminal being killed in gun-related violence is infinitesimal (on a national scale, based on the 80% estimate of criminals killing criminals, roughly
1 in a million)? That last weekend in Toronto was a statistical blip?
Sure, I’d like the number to be the number to be 4 instead of 42. I’d like to be like Australia or Switzerland or Hungary, but it’s hardly time to start panicking over gun violence.
Note: Many of the statistics for this entry came from here and here.
Those links go to a gun control organization, but all of the facts that I’ve cited come from major newspapers (The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star) or the Toronto Police Department.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Not all gang-related shootings are non-innocent victims. “Gang-related” includes cross-fire, etc. and there was a person killed in their home by crossfire this year.
On the other hand, you’re right… we’re not talking about a lot of people here. The police budget is also quite high and they want more. (See http://www.andrewspicer.com/article246.html )
Furthermore, most people actually working in the tough parts of town feel we actually need to be spending more on parks & rec and other social programs to give these youth something to do. Those programs will have to be killed to pay for 600 more cops.
I would suggest that the families of the “3.35” extra people who will be killed this year would consider it an emergency.
As for “social programs” these guys aren’t killing each other out of boredom. They are killing each other because they are in a turf war to control lucrative illegal activities.
Maybe we need to give them a way to kill each other without taking out innocent bystanders. I’d call that a win-win situation.
The media usually gets riled up over the things that are less likely to cause death. Gun violence, SARS, killer bees, whatever sounds scary on the 6 o’clock news. Most people in Canada will probably die in a car accident or from a lingering disease like cancer. Hell, more people die from the flu every year than died from scary, scary SARS.
May I quote some statistics in my essay for youth violence being a social issue in contemporary Canada? If so, how can I cite your info in my bibliography? Thanks for your time.