Blame Canada America: Rocketing Toronto Gunshot Deaths Pinned On America's "Export of Violence"

Guys, give us a break. Without the export of violence our trade deficit would be even worse.

They don't say we're exporting actual criminals. Apparently it's just a murderous frisson emanating up to Canada from her thuggish gun-lovin' neighbor to the South. Well, that and a lot of guns flowing north.

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. ...

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.

...

"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.

Miller said Toronto, a city of nearly three million, is still very safe compared to most American cities, but the illegal flow of weapons from the United States is causing the noticeable rise in gun violence.

"The U.S. is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto," he said.

Hold on. At most we're exporting guns. Which isn't the same as "violence." I hate to get all NRA here, but a gun doesn't just fire itself, unless maybe it's owned by a Hemmingway or a William Burroughs.

Miller said that while almost every other crime in Toronto is down, the supply of guns has increased and half of them come from the United States.

Half of the increase in gun supply? I think that's probably what he/the reporter means. It could be that gun supplies have gone up 10% or so, and the US is blamed for half of that uptick. Or 5%.

In any event, isn't Canada fairly well-stocked with guns as it is? The only thing I took away from Bowling for Columbine (apart from how sad it is to watch an obese man trying to be funny) is that Canada had a lot of guns and was, at least in the past, pretty responsible with them.

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.

Ahhhh... so it turns out the "root cause" is actually what it always is-- young people with litle hope or economic prospects but a bit of .38 caliber ambition.

I wonder if we'll be blamed for that part. America invented urban dispair around 1880, and our corporate-crime complex has been marketing it around the world since then.

posted by Ace at 01:09 PM

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