It Can Happen Anywhere

A few days ago, my Tampa daughter mentioned that she'd heard gunshots and then sirens close to her house. She said there'd been no mention in the news, though, so it couldn't have been too serious. Remember, this is Tampa in the United States where gunfire is pretty common. I snidely remarked that if anyone heard gunshots in my hometown in Canada, it would make the front pages of the newspaper because it would be such a rarity.

Well, snide and holier than thou remarks often come back to bite you in the ass and this was no exception. Shortly after, we had a drive by shooting here where a house was peppered with bullets. Yes, this is an anomaly in my hometown but it just goes to show you that gun violence is growing even here in Canada.

There can be no question that the availability of guns to criminals is what increases gun violence. If they didn't have guns, they'd use some other weapon but it would be one that had less chance to be lethal. We have been seeing more knife fights in Canada but someone attacked by a knife has a better chance of defending themselves than if the assailant had a gun.

We used to have a drug house on our street and I often worried about gunfights while they were there. When the house was finally raided, they did find guns and that's not surprising because the house was used for criminal activity. This is a quiet family neighborhood so having a drug house among us was like having a snake in the henhouse. None of us were really safe.

Toronto is a madhouse for gun violence with someone being murdered every weekend. I hate to see my town follow in the footsteps of it's larger neighbor but it is happening, even though on a smaller scale. I have never before heard of a house being shot at like this but I'm sure it will happen again in the future.

In my humble opinion, the only people who should be able to own a handgun are military and police. I even hate the idea of people owning hunting rifles because there is no need for it and to call hunting a sport is ridiculous. The poor animal being hunted has no defence against a gun.

I hate violence of any kind but I know we're a violent species who will always find some way to justify hunting and killing. It's a shame.