Canadians Shoot Each Other, but It's America's Fault

Violence is on the increase in Canada, and apparently it's our fault:

Canadian officials, seeking to make sense of another fatal shooting in what has been a record year for gun-related deaths, said Tuesday that along with a host of social ills, part of the problem stemmed from what they said was the United States exporting its violence.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Toronto Mayor David Miller warned that Canada could become like the United States after gunfire erupted Monday on a busy street filled with holiday shoppers, killing a 15-year-old girl and wounding six bystanders -- the latest victims in a record surge in gun violence in Toronto.

The shooting stemmed from a dispute among a group of 10 to 15 youth, and the victim was a teenager out with a parent near a popular shopping mall, police said Tuesday.

"I think it's a day that Toronto has finally lost its innocence," Det. Sgt. Savas Kyriacou said. "It was a tragic loss and tragic day."

While many Canadians take pride in Canadian cities being less violent than their American counterparts, Toronto has seen 78 murders this year, including a record 52 gun-related deaths -- almost twice as many as last year.

"What happened yesterday was appalling. You just don't expect it in a Canadian city," the mayor said.

"It's a sign that the lack of gun laws in the U.S. is allowing guns to flood across the border that are literally being used to kill people in the streets of Toronto," Miller said.

Canadians don't kill Canadians, American guns do. What nonsense.

Mayor Miller did admit that the Canadians may bear some of the responsibility:

Miller said the availability of stolen Canadian guns is another problem, and that poverty in certain Toronto neighborhoods is a root cause.

"There are neighborhoods in Toronto where young people face barriers of poverty, discrimination and don't have real hope and opportunity. The kind of programs that we once took for granted in Canada that would reach out to young people have systematically disappeared over the past decade and I think that gun violence is a symptom of a much bigger problem," Miller said.

It may play well politically for Martin to blame America for his country's failings, but playing the blame game isn't going to fix the problems the Mayor describes in Toronto. Perhaps the Prime Minister is in need of a little introspection. I'm thinking the log in his eye is preventing him from removing the speck in America's eye.

And if illegal guns are entering Canada from America, is that our fault or the fault of the Canadian Border Patrol folks? It's not our responsibility to protect their borders. We have enough trouble with our own. John Thompson agrees:

John Thompson, a security analyst with the Toronto-based Mackenzie Institute, says the number of guns smuggled from the United States is a problem, but that Canada has a gang problem -- not a gun problem -- and that Canada should stop pointing the finger at the United States.

"It's a cop out. It's an easy way of looking at one symptom rather than addressing a whole disease," Thompson said.

The Canadians don't have a gun problem, they have a people problem. If you have good people, you could pour guns in there like water over Niagara and it wouldn't make any difference. A gun is just a tool.