The following points were adapted from a recent discussion at Jack’s Newswatch. Ultimately the discussion was triggered by the recent fatal shooting of 11 year old . As usual, Toronto’s political elite raised the issue of handguns and how these violent attacks would go away if only the federal government would ban all handguns (memo to Mayor Miller: why not be more holistic about it and just ban murder? Oh wait….)
1) Kids are shooting other kids with guns as part of gang warfare. These misguided youths-turned-domestic-terrorists want a rep and some “cheddar†– using guns is a way to do it, and far more glamourous than working at McDonald’s
2) Cultures with fewer stable families and not inclined toward academics / learning have a very difficult time countering the notions of “easy money†that all youth seek. Bajans, Trinidadians and Nigerians are subject to the same discrimination and economic disparities as Jamaicans, yet have substantially lower crime rates and virtually no gun play (at least in this country). The reason? Different cultural priorities that are more compatible with our highly-educated, service-based economy.
2) Gangs exist to make a profit. They don’t shoot guns off for the hell of it and rarely target innocent bystanders. The profit is often made on selling drugs.
3) Gangs are middle-men. Drugs, like any other product, can only be profitable if there is adequate supply and demand. Exclusively attacking the middle man is useless (even though that seems to constitute the majority of the war on drugs and use of police resources). If you want to get rid of the gang violence then you have to get rid of the incentives that lead to the violence. Attack the supply or the demand.
4) Everyone very well knows about #3 but that, and not American guns for Jamaican thugs, is the part that people are “afraid†to talk about. Why?
Supply –> Foreign countries mostly. Attacking Colombia is likely to step on some stateside toes and drag us into a war similar to the war on terror. And regardless, why should Canada go at it alone? For domestically grown drugs we would have to declare war on our own countryside (eg B.C.) and that is sure to ruffle a few voter feathers. What politician has the guts to suggest such a drastic response?
Demand –> You don’t want to get rid of demand because you ARE the demand. Cocaine is for the most part not a ghetto drug – you are more likely to find it in Richmond Hill than Malvern. If you want to see serious drug consumption, spend some time on a college campus, at a posh night club (not a hip hop club) or in a small affluent town. Of course if you arrest and pressure these types of users then you’d be arresting doctors, lawyers, college students and Paris Hilton wannabes – not the kind of “scary lookin†folks that have to rely on a public defender. Thus they will be hard to procesute and cause only a minute increase in public confidence (as opposed to jailing a few big scruffy bikers or menacing Jamaicans)
Sphere: Related Content
I agree with you that a handgun ban might not be the most effective way to stop gun violence (it might help a little though). The real problem is that the manufacture of handguns can never be stopped, regardless of how much we would like it to be so.
The real solution would be a greater investment in social programs of course, which Miller does advocate. His focus on the troubled neighborhoods should help in this regard. Unfortunately the funding the city needs is never forthcoming from the province.
Hi Ben:
I agree to an extent but social programs alone cannot solve everything. For academic social programs the culture of the recipients has to be learning-oriented to begin with, and the the ancestral/birth land for most of these gangsters (Jamaica) is not particularly scholarly by default. So what kind of social programs could stop this violence? What alternative life path do these youths have?
Unfortunately, the prospects for blue collar work in Ontario aren’t good – the rising dollar means manufacturing jobs and other jobs related to export are leaving in droves. All that remains are either low-paying retail jobs (there is little chance that a drug dealer will give up his tax-free career to sell handbags) and white collar jobs requiring at least an undergraduate degree (if not more).
Missed this post the other day Cynapse. Well said!
(So what kind of social programs could stop this violence? What alternative life path do these youths have?)
Social programs have to start in the home with the right kind of “role models.” Let’s face it, lots of us grew up in relative poverty (e.g., my mother was a single mom in the late 1940′s before there was such a thing as welfare) and/or have had difficult childhoods but we don’t resort to violence of a violent lifestyle.
So, the best social program is a home where there are rules, dreams and encouragement and positive role models — even if only in the extended family — rather than violent gangs where members model a criminal lifestyle while trying to become a replacement family.
I’m coming a little late here, but I just want to note that I’ve met a number of Blacks from the Caribbean who resent not every individual Jamaican but the fact that criminal elements within the Jamaican community are giving a bad reputation to all Blacks. For example, an acquaintance of mine from Haiti, a man who has never even had a speeding ticket, is stopped routinely by the police. He says they have never been rude and he always cooperates with them, but I think he is beginning to become resentful at the “hoods” who in the end hurt all Blacks.
I must say that if I were, for example, in China and there were a group of Whites engaging disproportionately in criminal behaviour and bringing all Whites under suspicion, I would feel resentment towards that group.
However, in the case of Jamaican gangs in Toronto, I’ve got to place some blame on the White community. I mean who consumes the drugs in which these gangs trade? In many cases, upscale Whites who are told that drugs are “cool” and will help them “expand their consciousness” (by White “experts”).
[quote]I agree with you that a handgun ban might not be the most effective way to stop gun violence (it might help a little though). The real problem is that the manufacture of handguns can never be stopped, regardless of how much we would like it to be so.[/quote]
People who took CALM and various other squishy, post industrial-focused classes in school might be shocked to learn that guns aren’t made by gun gnomes, or firearms fairies in some U.S. factory. [b]Anybody[/b/ with a modicum of skill and a lathe, &c. can crank 'em out. Right now, some rag-swaddled, illiterate Pashtun in Waziristan is cranking out AK-47 knockoffs in his mud hut. Ban handguns and somebody'll make them illegally. As for 'social programmes,' the best for addressing the crime problem is the penal system.
[quote]I’m coming a little late here, but I just want to note that I’ve met a number of Blacks from the Caribbean who resent not every individual Jamaican but the fact that criminal elements within the Jamaican community are giving a bad reputation to all Blacks[/quote]
There’s nothing wrong with Carribean culture, single mothers, or whatever. (If this was the case, why are there also gangbangers from patriarchal Asian families?) The problem is that too many immigrants from everywhere (including the U.S.) are let in without background checks. Jane & Finch-style ghettos are created in the name of ‘multiculturalism’ and the scumbags recruit youngsters from ‘the community’ into their fold. Better screening of immigrants (some ‘refugees’ are really fugitives) and scattering new arrivals throught the Country would help.
[quote]I mean who consumes the drugs in which these gangs trade?[/quote]
True. All the whiney lefties complaining that the government should “do something” should stop supporting gangs with their pot purchases.
Adam
BTW: Ever notice that armoured car drivers carry handguns? Where would Miller, McGuinty & al get their ATM dough from if there weren’t any guns? And why can you only carry a gun to guard a bag of twenties?
i am holding a walk against gun violence sat oct 11 at 1 in the afternoon for anyone who has lost a family member to gun violence or is just sickand tired of the community come join us
Drugs dealers are a byproduct of a society in decadence. The drug dealers emerge whenever there is a demand for drug. The best way to combat drug dealers is to use Draconian measure against the end user like Chairman Mao Tse-Tung did in China.