Happy Bang-Bang

After capping off a banner year of gun deaths here in Toronto (which despite the high number is not anywhere near our U.S. neighbours) it seems that the local thugs have decided to kick things off right. The year was only a couple of hours old when our first gun death was recorded - a 21 year old man from North York.

Now I won't be shedding a tear for this particular young man - 21 year old Dillan Yhanike Anderson was apparently not a very nice fellow. It seems that he himself had been arrested previously for shooting another man back in 2003 (that fellow was luckier - he survived), which in fact throws a bit of irony into the situation.

If Mr. Anderson had been effectively held, convicted and sentenced for his gun related crime, he would likely be alive (and in prison) today. I won't be surprised if we find out that his death was a "revenge" shooting - a surprising amount of our gun violence is conducted in the name of vengeance.

The unfortunate reality of gang life is that escalating "tit-for-tat" acts of revenge account for the vast majority of the shooting incidents we have today. This probably wouldn't be a huge problem unto itself - I really don't care if they kill each other - if it weren't for their total lack of regard towards innocent bystanders. This past year has seen the serious wounding of a 4 year old boy and the killings of a young mother and 15 year old girl - all victims of stray bullets from these heartless animals.

I've already outlined my ideas on how to take care of this mess - unfortunately I'm not the one in power. Perhaps now is the time to ask our potential future leaders what their views are on the matter. Send you questions to:

Steven Harper - Conservatives
Paul Martin - Liberals
Jack Layton - NDP
Gilles Duceppe - Bloc (My Canada includes Quebec and this is a Montreal problem too)