Anti-gun plan fires blanks

Re Premier Doug Ford pledges $25M to fight ‘thugs,’ guns, August 10

I have several questions regarding this announcement.

Why is Ford “flanked by Attorney General Caroline Mulroney and Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Michael Tibollo?” Is he saying only the police can help combat gun violence?

Why does Ford keep saying it’s up to police how to spend the money, while suggesting how to spend it? Doesn’t this put pressure for his suggestions to be followed, as it implies that future funding might depend on this? And what of future transparency and accountability if police can spend it as they wish?

Is Ford not aware that the World Health Organization has declared violence a global public health problem? There is nothing about rehab, community outreach, enhanced job opportunities for at-risk youth, or any public health aspect to his plan for combating gun violence.

Finally, the U.S. began a war on crime in 1965 with then-president Lyndon Johnson’s establishment of the “President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice.” The U.S. now has more than five times the incarceration rate per capita compared to Canada.

Is that really a goal we aspire to?

Moses Shuldiner, Toronto