Gun Summit Pt 2 I suppose one could call it. Monday Toronto Mayor Rob Ford met with premier Dalton McGuinty and his police chief Bill Blair to discuss gun violence in the provincial capital. Ford was assured that the province would provide $12.5M to fund a special police squad to curb violence. Toronto's anti-violence intervention strategy unit (TAVIS) was due to wrap up at the end of this fiscal.

Today (July 24/12) Ford is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Toronto to ask for more funding. "A lot of this comes down to stable funding," said Ford and he hopes for more cash from the feds.

POLITICANS WHO PANIC

I'm sure that our collective panic over guns in the streets not only stems from the July 16 Danzig St. shoot out but is exacerbated by recent events in Colorado. How can we not worry about guns, youth, accessibility and in general, crime and punishment? Some days the news is overwhelming.

If Rob Ford, Dalton McGuinty and Stephen Harper are the team on the case, I don't have a lot of confidence in the problem being resolved anytime soon. Of course there are no quick solutions to any of this.

Rob Ford does not warm to any so-called "hug-a-thug" programs, Harper (with cohorts Toews and Nicholson) have an odd take on tough-on-crime. They pass ridiculous laws, close prisons and cut funding. I'm not sure what any of that does. McGuinty? Who knows? His heart goes out to victim's families, but whose doesn't?

Obviously we can't just keep putting out fires without isolating and elminating causes. Common sense says that simply throwing perps in jail solves nothing in the long run. Jail is in fact a society where the culture of crime and violence is taught, learned and promoted.

Firstly we need more police, everywhere. Ford is right on that count. It comes down to funding. After that we need to empower community leaders. The majority do NOT want violence and want safe streets, however, they have no outs and often live in fear.

Short-sighted panic by politicians is just as deadly a killer. Why have we not learned that ALL plans to eliminate guns and violence is at least two fold? We DO have to get bad guys off the streets and then work harder on causality. If not the viscious cycle will continue, and this is about as viscious as a cycle gets. LEAVE COMMENTS.

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