Until now, I haven’t written about the mass shooting on the Danforth, an area of Toronto with which I’m familiar, and love. My 40th birthday party, compliments of work colleagues at 680 News, was held at a wonderful Greek restaurant there called Pappas Grill. Greektown is a great area to meet friends for a drink on a patio or dinner.Â
I don’t have any more words for the tragedies/crimes/losses of life that are happening too frequently now. It’s not that I have no more f***s to give; I give too many f***s and they have no effect whatsoever. My f***-giving drains me. It’s become routine. The news – my bread and butter – wears me out at a time like this. I can’t turn it off or look away and I can’t do a damn thing to change what’s going wrong.
People in authority have no answers, either. Toronto Mayor John Tory believes, as do I, that no one in a city has a good reason to own a handgun. Target practice? What. Ever. I don’t have sympathy just because it’s something that someone else enjoys. In a vote of 41-4, Toronto council decided to ask the federal and provincial governments to ban the sale of guns and ammunition in that city. Will it work? Not likely. Are they at least doing something more than wringing their hands and watching children die like the US does? Absolutely.
Wouldn’t it be great if Canada found a way to stop this problem? Tell me which is easier: further restrictions of guns or helping everyone with their individual cases of mental illness? We are in a crisis. I just don’t care anymore if I piss off a gun enthusiast. Not even my target-shooting brother.
Consider this shocking fact from the Ottawa Citizen, regarding the gun Dellen Millard used to kill truck-seller Tim Bosma, in 2013. Millard got the pistol from a friend of a friend, and its origin was later traced.
When a former police officer in the Toronto area was ailing and suffering from Alzheimer’s, his spouse grew worried about his cache of legally acquired guns inside his home. Instead of turning them in, she put the pistols and rifles in a garbage bag and sold them to a friend of her son’s for a few hundred dollars.
Fifty-percent of all handguns used in crimes, whose origins can be traced, are “diverted” legally-owned guns. The Citizen quoted a member of Toronto’s guns and gangs unit.
He cited a case of a man legally buying guns and reselling them illegally, earning $100,000 from 47 guns.
The opinion that gun bans don’t target criminals no longer holds when criminals are getting guns from so-called legal sources.
You can be sure that I took abuse from listeners for my stance. Coupled with a comment later in the morning about Pride that “love is love”, I’m now a pinko, turncoat, snowflake commie to some. One listener in particular sent long-winded rants about keeping a grip on his guns, but when challenged, offered no solutions to lunatics shooting up a city neighbourhood.
The only common denominator to deadly shootings is the gun. Gun owners love to ask, what about knives? We’re not talking about knives. We’re talking about guns.
I love to paint. But if me quitting painting, or only painting in a designated area meant those who killed with paintbrushes wouldn’t have access to them, buh-bye paint time. If you can look the families of Reese Fallon and Julianna Kozis in the eyes and tell them you have to keep a gun in your house because it’s your right, good for you. I couldn’t do it. In fact, I’d love to change something about my behavior that might prevent future deaths of innocent people. But I can’t. So this is my chosen solution. If fighting it means someone comes up with a better one, I’ll be all for it.
My brother has responded and you can read his reply HERE. (Followed by my comment to his response!)