Sunday, January 20, 2008

Toronto Street Gangs and the War on Guns

© By Othmar Vohringer

Toronto is Canada’s capitol of street gangs and drug wars that claimed yesterday their latest innocent victim, Hou Chang Mao is the second bystander that was killed in a random shooting this week and the third homicide victim in the new year in the city.

This cowardly homicide carried out by common criminals (known to the police) is for the city’s Major David Miller (picture on the left) another moment to renew his call for a total gun ban in Toronto and Canada. Miller has become the front man for the anti-gun lobby in Canada but if it suits him, or his political career, he will take part in a photo opportunity with gang rappers that carry a pro-gun message. The Toronto Mayor has a lot of support in his gun ban war from the liberal anti-gun lobby and the leaders of the liberal party and the NDP. Jack Layton, leader of the NDP (New Democratic Party of Canada) is a front runner for the anti-gun lobby, he turns up in Toronto as soon as gang violence claims another innocent victim to promote his total gun ban agenda standing on the crime scene surounded by stunned bystanders.

What Layton, Miller and other assorted anti-gun advocates never mention is the fact that Canada has a very effective firearm control law and firearm registry in place and that handguns are banned since the early 1930’s. In Canada handguns can only be owned by people that underwent an extensive criminal background check ( to be repeated and re-valued every four years) and successfully completed a firearm safety course. Canadian firearm owners also subject to random house vists (chck ups) by the police and have to provide personal relationship and financial information upon request by the authoritis. What the anti-gun lobby also forgets to mention, and for good reason, is the fact that a handgun ban would only affect the two and something million legal gun owners in Canada and not the street gangs and criminals.

Statistics Canada reveals that only 2% of the guns used in violent crimes are registered firearms. This means that 98% of gun crimes are committed with illegal handguns obtained on the black market. Conveniently the anti-gun lobby and the supporting politicians such as Mayor Miller and Jack Layton, among others, also never tell the scared, confused and grieving people of Toronto that in countries, such as England, Australia and Germany where they have a total gun ban violent gun crime has sharply risen. In fact the only people that have guns in these countries are the criminals. The same is true in New York, Chicago and other American cities were a total gun ban exists.

What makes me really angry is that the liberal anti gun fanatics oppose and successfully prevent the Harper minority government from singing Bill C-10 into effect. Bill C-10 provides stiffer and longer sentences for gun related crimes and would provide no bail for firearm related crimes (statistics have shown that over 90% of criminals disappear ones they are freed on bail). The liberal morons that are so gung-ho on banning guns are complaining that Bill C-10 is reaching to far and that the sentences are to high. Layton even had the nerve to state in public that Bill C-10 is too harsh on criminals and violets human rights. How harsh would be a total gun ban on the millions of law abiding Canadian firearm owners? What about our human rights not to be discriminated against and publicly condemned as part of a criminal problem? Sadly, it's nothing new that liberals are more concerend with the welfare and rights of criminals rather than with the safety and freedoms of law abiding Canadians.

To me it makes a lot more sense to come down hard on street gangs and other assorted criminals, than to punish law abiding citizens. I have said it before and I will say it again. There is something inherently wrong with a justice system when crime victims leave a courthouse crying and feel victimized all over again by the courts while the criminals leave courts laughing as free man. For as long as our morally corrupt judges, lawyers and liberal-bleeding-hearts-politicians continue with their soft approach in dealing with hardened career criminals and assign them more rights than the crime victims it only will get worse on the streets of Toronto and other large cities.

The solution to the gang and drug violence on the streets of our cities is simple. Get the scum of the streets and punish them severely. Send criminals a clear message that each action has an equal counter action and that they will be held fully accountable without any but and if. Give the police the means to hold this lowlifes behind bars for as long as it takes without the hope of bail. Replace soft judges with hard core judges that are not afraid to slam the law books hard on the head of criminals. Pay more attention to the crime victims and their sense of justice and less to the criminals.

Perhaps it is time to start writing letters to these liberals and let them know how we feel about the insults leveld at us and being made into scapegoats for a problem that is not of our doing and has nothing to do with legal firearm ownership.

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Othmar - a very well written article with some great points. I find your point of view particularly interesting since you're in a different country (it's nice to hear about politics outside of the US!). I know you're familiar with my site, so I'm sure you are familiar with my take on the anti-gun issue, so I'll spare going deep into that issue. However, I do want to say that I'm not so sure that stiffer punishments will be very realistic in the future (for a variety of reasons). I do think stiffer punishments are necessary, but I doubt they will ever get to the point that they, in and of themselves, will solve the problem.

The great gun debate is a very complex and multi-faceted issue - one that will likely require a complex and multi-faceted response (including but not limited to harsher punishments).

That being said, I do respect your opinion and offer praise once again for a quality article.

Othmar Vohringer said...

Thanks for you comment Bryan. Your view makes for some interesting debates and I look forward to other comments to this issue.

-ov-

Unknown said...

The gang issues are getting rough in areas here in North Carolina. We are getting overwhelmed with this MS13 Mexican gang. The graffiti is ridiculous, historic areas are being painted, road signs, parking lots, buildings, school buses, cop cars, you name it, if it can be painted these thugs are spraying it. Sorry to get off topic. Harsher penalties or not, these thugs will always have guns in their hands.

Othmar Vohringer said...

Thanks for the comment. Your post is not off topic. Crime and disrespect is prevalent in all criminals or they vandalize or kill. I do not have the answers to the problem of stopping crime. All I have to go by is what I have seen in my youth were people were generally afraid of what might happen to them if they put the foot on the wrong side of the law. Of course as a child I learned respect because I have been held fully accountable for my actions without but, if and excuses and that involved punishment too. I think it is safe to say that the fear of punishment kept me, and I guess many others too, all my life on the straight and narrow. Unlike today we also learned that we are not entitled to anything other than the undying love of our parents and even that had to be earned.

I know one thing for certain though. Banning firearms and victimizing law abiding gun owners will not stop criminals from having guns. I have lived in countries, such as England and China, that had total gun control and the criminals still got and used guns to commit crimes. Having said that I must add that China was the only country where we could feel totally safe even in a dark night in the darkest of alleys. China has absolutely no patience for crime and shows not the slightest lenience in punishing criminals. Moreover criminals are forced to work and pay every penny back to the courts and the crime victims, heck they have to pay for their own execution. I believe that China’s strict law and judicial system plays a big part in having one of the worlds lowest crime rates.

-ov-

Blogging Horse said...

Just to clear up one point:

Jack Layton and the NDP are in favour of stiffer penalties for gun crimes, and they campaigned on them in the last election.

The NDP was the one party that supported bill C-10 through all readings and it was almost law until the Harper government decided to scrap the bill and start from scratch.

It's a fact.

Othmar Vohringer said...

Thank for your comment Blogging Horse, from your blog I can see that you’re an NDP supporter. This would perhaps explain why you say what you say but fact is that the NDP together with the Liberals do everything in their power to prevent the Harper government from getting Bill C-10 passed. In fact I just read yesterday that Layton said, “…stiffer penalties are not the answer to gun violence.” Maybe that’s true but neither is a total gun ban in the city of Toronto and across Canada that he promotes so avidly.

Total gun control hasn’t worked in England and it doesn’t work in Australia where violent gun crimes have sky rocketed after the gun ban. What total gun control does is punish law abiding firearm owners, hunters and sport shooters. It takes a Liberal or the NDP do not understand that simple fact that is evident in every single country where they have total gun control. Take Germany a total gun ban country overrun with violent crime, yet next door neighbor Switzerland with a gun culture and no gun control and firearms in every household has the world’s lowest crime rate. That’s irrefutable fact!

-ov-

admin said...

Your post is bang on; no pun intended. It irritates me to no end that politicians try to address these issues by punishing law abiding people. I have been an enforcement officer for over 20 years and have witnessed the disrespect and social problems that are rampant in our country. Not to mention that I am related to police officers and know quite a few more who are fed up with the courts, the system and their jobs. They put their lives on the line every day and have to deal with these thugs constantly and basically are laughed at.....due to the criminals knowing they will be out on bail, or back out on the street within days. Stiffer penalties are handed out to tax evaders and dead beat parents. Yeh way to go government you are doing an excellent job..............NOT! Address the problem.......

Othmar Vohringer said...

Thanks Admin .I hear what you’re saying, I have a few good friends in the police force and they are all frustrated. As you said small time crooks are harder punished than killers. In general their seems to be much more emphasis on the rights and well-being of criminals than on the victims of crime. Criminals are closely monitored during integration and have an army of “experts” at their disposal all paid for by the taxpayers. The victims are often forgotten and have no help other than being offered counseling for which they have to pay. Then in the courts the crime victim often is victimized all over again as courts often try to blame the victim while the criminal can make 1000 and 1 excuses that are valuable and will lower his sentence.

Years ago a career drunk driver with a ten year history of laughing in the face of the law, police and courts finally killed a young girl. He walked free because he refused to admit to it. The father of the girl lobbied for years to change the law that would give drunk drivers stiffer penalties. Finally and with help of the conservatives the law proposal made it to Ottawa only to be boycotted by the Liberals and NDP because they found it was too harsh on the criminals. Not a word was said about how harsh it is for parents to have their beloved child killed by a drunk lowlife with a criminal history as long as his arm. Like I said in my article. There is something inherently wrong with a justice system when crime victims leave the courthouse sobbing and in shock and the criminal leaves laughing and giving interviews to the media. It should be the other way around.

-ov-

SimplyOutdoors said...

All gun laws do are keep guns from law abiding citizens and leave the criminals with a defenseless victim.

It's sad that these rights have to be fought for on a daily basis and that it strips people of their god given right of self protection.

Othmar Vohringer said...

Not so long ago I had a discussion with someone about the God given right to defend ourselves. That person was of the opinion that we do not have that right, which would mean that we’re lower ranking than animals. Even a little bird will fiercely defend its brood against intruders. Only we humans should duck, bow our heads and take a beating or stand by and watch our possession been carried away. I don’t think so!!

Of course if we’re to believe the “experts” we should install iron bars on our windows, alarm systems, stay inside after dark behind bolted doors. In effect we should convert our homes into high security prisons and adjust our lifestyle to criminal activity. I don’t think so!!

-ov-

Anonymous said...

Othmar, great post and it is right on!

In Texas, our stiff penalties really didn't stop criminal activity, BUT our concealed carry laws and "Castle Doctrine" have done more to cut the crime rate!

The "Castle Doctrine" protects a homeowner for his use of violent force on an intruder.

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