“There is no magic bullet”: police chief

At the end of a press conference, right after the shootings on Toronto’s Danforth Avenue, a reporter tossed a final question at Police Chief Mark Saunders. The chief was already heading off-camera. I didn’t catch the question, but I’m fairly sure I heard Saunders say, “There is no magic bullet.” And if he didn’t say it, he should have. Because although it was a singularly inappropriate cliché — after all, 15 people had just been shot — it was also exactly the right answer.

Because, a magic bullet is what everyone wants.

Toronto Mayor John Tory led off the magic-bullet wish list, blaming too many guns in Toronto. He’s right on fact; less so on solution.

Since Stephen Harper cancelled the federal gun registry in 2012, Tim Naumetz reported, nearly two million rifles, shotguns and handguns were imported for retail sale across Canada.

And that’s just the legal sales. It can’t count the number smuggled in from the Excited States, where the NRA considers gun ownership a godgiven right. Or those stolen from legitimate gun owners, and then sold illegally. A CBC report went further. Before Harper killed the gun registry, 75 per cent of firearms were trafficked from the U.S. By 2017, about half of guns on the market originated in Canada, bought legally by gun owners and illegally sold.

Tougher gun laws will work only with law-abiding people. Rational people. People who accept the standards and values of a community. A deranged gunman is none of those. On Tuesday, Toronto city council debated a $44 million five-year strategy to combat gun violence that has roughly doubled this year. One item — 40 additional CCTV cameras. Which might catch more shooters. But won’t prevent any.

Another oft-quoted “magic bullet” calls for stiffer penalties.

Penalties have never worked to stop crime. England used to apply the death penalty for stealing a loaf of bread. If you’re starving anyway, the prospect of extending your life for a few days far outweighs the risk of losing it.

Besides, if stiffer penalties worked, why would so many mass shooters take their own lives? Their own actions demonstrate that even the ultimate deterrent doesn’t deter them.

The murder rate in Canada has dropped steadily since the abolition of capital punishment. American states that still retain the death penalty cannot make the same claim.

There were other “magic bullets.”

More cops, for instance. Chief Saunders admitted that at peak times, he has only 245 officers — of some 4,800 uniformed personnel — available for immediate deployment.

And more mental health services. The parents of 29-year-old Faisal Hussain, the Danforth shooter, issued a statement: “Our son had severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life. The interventions of professionals were unsuccessful. Medications and therapy were unable to treat him.”

Turning the problem over to police or to mental health workers will not work, because it allows the rest of us to shirk our responsibility.

“Who, me?” you say. Yes, you and me.

Because, in my experience, conflicts only escalate into crises because people who could have intervened, didn’t.

Maybe they didn’t want to offend a friend. Maybe they honestly believed that if they smoothed things over, the problem would go away.

Politics talks about “the silent majority.” I prefer to think of them as “the deliberately disengaged.” The people who could have done something, and didn’t.

For example, someone knew that Faisal Hussain had obtained a gun. And someone must have known that he had practiced shooting and reloading.

Someone knew he that he fantasized about killing.

To my mind, those persons — whether singular or plural — are complicit in Hussain’s crime.

Similarly, someone failed to provide the mental health services Hussain needed. I don’t know why. Maybe he opted out. Maybe he no longer qualified. Maybe he broke rules.

Mental health workers chronically deal with crippling caseloads. I know that they have to work within government guidelines. Nevertheless, I contend, the professionals who failed Faisal Hussain have to share some responsibility for his actions.

As Toronto mayor John Tory said, about another shooting, “It’s time for us to be very aggressive in …saying: ‘You are not going to terrorize this city, and you are not going to engage in this kind of anti-social, unacceptable behaviour.’”

No one else can do it. Expecting someone else to resolve social problems is like expecting a fairy godmother to show up with a magic wand. Or Chief Saunders’ magic bullet. Jim Taylor is an Okanagan Centre author and freelance journalist. He can be reached at rewrite@shaw.ca