TORONTO—Public shootings in Toronto have fuelled intense political pressure for action, but with gun control off the political radar south of the border, despite a murderous rampage in a Colorodo movie theatre, at least part of the problem looks to be ignored.
The summer has seen a spate of high-profile public shootings in Canada and the U.S., beginning with the fatal shooting Toronto Eatons Centre earlier in June, then a gun fight at a BBQ in the nearby suburb of Scarborough on July 16.
While that shootout left two killed and 23 injured, it was eclipsed days later when 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes opened fire in a Colorado theatre last Friday and killed 12 people while injuring 58 others.
In Canada, governments at all levels have been discussing how to deal with gun violence, but part of the problem resides beyond their control.
Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association, said loose firearms laws in U.S. make guns more accessible north of the border.
“The proliferation of guns and firearms in the United States has a huge impact on their availability in Canada to those that are ... going to great lengths to obtain them. There’s no question of that,” Stamatakis said.
In Canada, handguns are restricted or prohibited and need to be registered with the RCMP. South of the border, 41 states have the right to carry handguns and 38 of those states require permits. Another eight states have strict requirements for permits with only Illinois and District of Columbia prohibiting the right to carry altogether.
But despite shock over the deaths in Colorado, neither President Barack Obama nor Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney are talking about tightening gun controls.
Many see this silence as an indication of success of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) lobbying effort against gun controls. The NRA is seen as one of, if not the most, powerful lobbying groups in the U.S.
Speaking to reporters in Oshawa on Tuesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper touched on the issue.
Harper rejected a reporter’s suggestion that cuts to border security are making it more difficult to keep illegal guns out of the country, but said that integrated security with the U.S. would improve the situation.
“We do have increasingly integrated law enforcement programs with the United States to try and deal with the gun problem. As you know, most of the illegal guns that are used here do come from south of the border, and that is a number one priority of our cross-border initiative with American authorities,” he said.
The RCMP wrote in a 2007 report that 96 percent of seized guns had arrived from the U.S.
Arms Treaty
With President Obama expected to sign an Arms Trade treaty at the UN conference that ends on July 27, gun control is becoming an international issue.
The proposed treaty would set regulations for trade of conventional weapons internationally. The treaty was first brought up in 2006, but was opposed and stalled until 2009 when Obama reversed U.S. opposition to the treaty, much to the chagrin of the NRA which continues to oppose it.
Organizations like Oxfam Canada and Amnesty International Canada have been asking the Canadian government for a comprehensive treaty. Oxfam recently criticized governments for securing strict regulations on the trade of bananas while having no global regulation on firearms and ammunition.
The lure of gang culture
Trafficked firearms from the States are not the only source of gang-related gun violence, according to Stamatakis.
“We have unfortunately a generation of kids that are very attracted to that gang culture and there are many reasons for that, including the way that culture is portrayed... There’s lots of allure for kids,” Stamatakis said.
An article published in the Criminology and Criminal Justice journal in 2009 claimed that even though homicide rates have declined over time in Canada, gang-related violence has increased dramatically over the last decade.
Stamatakis said a prohibition of handguns in Canada or tighter gun laws won’t do much to prevent public shootings in the long run.
“You’ve got to find a message that’s appealing to young people, it can’t just be a police-based message—‘Don’t do this’ or ’Don’t do that,' that doesn’t work. Generally speaking, you’ve got to find a way to relate to youth and ... to these different community groups,” he said.
He noted that lessening gun violence in high-risk communities starts with better communication between police and the neighbourhoods with help of established outreach programs. There also needs to be attractive options for youth that will deter them from getting involved in gangs early on.
Harper said Tuesday that outreach programs in these communities are a good long-term solution.
“We also do invest in young people and in communities, and in programs that will try and encourage alternatives to gun and to gang activity,” he said.
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