Gun ownership under debate in Toronto
TORONTO — Of all the things people in Toronto are horrified by in the aftermath of the shooting that killed two people and injured 13, this stands out: The man responsible had a handgun.
To mass shooting-weary America — where there are about 300 million guns of all kinds — possession of a handgun might seem commonplace.
But in Toronto, the very idea that someone would have a handgun, much less take it out in public and fire it, is nearly incomprehensible. On Tuesday evening, after nearly 10 hours of discussing gun crimes, the City Councilvoted to urge the federal and provincial government to ban the sale of handguns and handgun ammunition in the largest city in Canada, and the fourth largestin North America.
“If anything, what’s happened in the United States is what not to do,” said City Councilman Joe Cressy, who proposed the motion Tuesday.
Agreed Toronto Mayor John Tory: “Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all?”
The measure passed 41-4; the country’s public safety minister said Tuesday that Ottawa was already considering tightening handgun laws, even prior to Sunday’s shooting.
It’s unclear how the shooter in Sunday’s tragedy obtained his gun. And officials haven’t discovered a motive for why 29-year-old Faisal Hussain targeted diners enjoying a warm summer night at restaurants and cafes in Toronto’s popular Greektown neighborhood, killing a 10-year-old girl and 18-year-old woman. His parents said he had suffered from severe mental illness his entire life.
Mr. Cressy acknowledged that banning handguns isn’t the only thing Toronto should do to combat gun violence, which is on the rise in the city. Crime prevention programs, helping those released from prison find jobs, mentoring kids and diversion programs are all initiatives that should be beefed up, along with meeting people’s mental health needs, he said.
Even before Sunday’s shooting, city leaders were concerned about an uptick in gun violence that had prompted the Toronto police to deploy dozens of additional officers over the weekend. The city has seen 23 gun homicides so far this year, compared to 16 fatal shootings in thefirst half of 2017.
Canada overhauled its laws after the country’s worst mass shooting in 1989, when gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique college. It’s now illegal to possess an unregistered handgun or any kind of rapid-fire weapon. Canada also requires training, a personal risk assessment, two references, spousal notification and criminal record checks to obtain a permit.
Before 2012, about 75 percent of illegal firearms in Canada were trafficked from the United States. By 2017, however, about half originated from domestic sources, puttingan end to the idea that most of Canada’s illegal guns come from across the border, saidDet. Rob Di Danieli of the Toronto police guns and gangsunit.
Legal Canadian gun owners are selling their weapons illegally, he said.
The allure of a quick sell at a high profit margin is one reason legal owners might sell their guns. One man sold 47 guns and made over $100,000 in a fivemonth period, Mr. Di Danieli said.
“They go get their license for the purpose of becoming a firearms trafficker,” he said. “A lot of people are so ready to blame the big bad Americans, but we had our own little problem here.”
A big difference between Canada and the U.S. is the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which grants Americans the right to bear arms. In Canada, gun ownership is not enshrined in the constitution.
“Canadians, unlike Americans, do not have a constitutional right to bear arms,” Canada’s high court said in a 1993 decision that upheld a ban on convertible semi-automatic weapons.
“Indeed, most Canadians prefer the peace of mind and sense of security derived from the knowledge that the possession of automatic weapons is prohibited,” the court said.
Another difference is that Canadian politicians are not beholden to groups like the National Rifle Association, which donates millions of dollars to U.S. campaigns. Canada’s federal elections laws put limits on contributions to political parties so that only individuals, not corporations or lobby groups, may donate.