A blueprint for reducing gun violence in Toronto
Last month, the City of Toronto passed a motion calling on the federal government to ban the sale of handguns within the city, and for the province to ban the sale of handgun ammunition in Toronto. This comes shortly after another shooting occurred in the city, costing the lives of two young women.
This week, Mitzie introduced a private member’s bill calling on the provincial government to allow municipalities to ban the sale of handgun ammunition within their boundaries. This bill, if passed, allows the provincial government to do its part to stop the violence in our communities.
This year alone, Toronto has experienced 229 shootings and 30 gun deaths, up from 205 shootings and 17 gun homicides this time last year. This is completely unacceptable and must be addressed head on.
Ammunitions are the hardware that make hand guns lethal. Limiting access to ammunitions within urban settings is a logical step toward reducing gun violence. Too often legally purchased ammunition ends up in the wrong hands for the wrong reasons, causing death and mayhem in our communities.
This doesn’t have to be the case. Nor does the ban have to deprive those who have legitimate need to purchase ammunitions. Through tailored regulations, government can exempt those who purchase ammunitions for strictly controlled purposes.
While banning the sale of ammunition in our municipalities is an important step, it cannot be considered a panacea. Gun violence is a complex issue with deep and long-standing connections to the inequality that underlies it. Until we redress social ills, we cannot reasonably expect to curb the shootings that bring so much pain and destruction into the lives of those who are impacted.
In 2008, the Review Of The Roots Of Youth Violence report, written by then Liberal MPP Alvin Curling and Justice Roy McMurtry, painstakingly detailed the links between limited social and economic opportunity and gun violence.
The report was hailed for highlighting the importance of high-quality programs that make a meaningful difference in the lives of young people and help those most at risk to avoid the often violent realities of street life.
A decade later, civic leaders appear to be drifting in the wrong direction despite lessons learned. We risk losing ground in curbing gun violence if we neglect what has been shown to work and return to an ineffective reliance upon increased policing and empty rhetoric. Our focus must remain on root causes. Most critically, we need to address Toronto’s social housing and its woeful state of disrepair. Research has shown that having safe, affordable and livable housing is essential in reducing violence and giving people hope for brighter futures.
Similarly, our schools and teachers have an enormous role to play. Young people spend most of their time in school. We therefore have to ensure that our schools are equipped with the right resources and specially trained teachers in order to intervene in the lives of troubled youth. It’s no secret that education remains the most powerful way to push back against the grinding poverty that leads so many onto violent paths.
We also need to find ways to better support and rehabilitate individuals who have been incarcerated for gunrelated offences. Successful community reintegration and improved employment prospects can help redirect those who repeatedly fall back into gun-related crime after serving time in prison.
Above all, there needs to be sustained and robust investment in affected communities. People who have realistic hopes for living productive, healthy and economically viable lives are less likely to engage in gun violence. This is an irrefutable fact that challenges all of us to step up and do better.
We also need to find ways to better support and rehabilitate individuals who have been incarcerated for gun-related offences