Taking Aim at Gun Violence

As most of Canada is now aware, eleven year old Ephraim Brown was struck and killed by a stray bullet from a gang shoot out in Toronto a few days ago, while at a barbecue for a friend's birthday party. I don't even want to imagine the kind of pain his family must be experiencing right now.

It is not my intention to use this post as an example of how effective or ineffective gun control is. I think at least my friends are pretty aware of my position on the matter, and I think I've posted about it before as well (not sure though).

I am posting because I am upset by the reaction of our country's political elite to this awful tragedy. It seems that whenever crimes like this occur, various legislators are quick to demand action, as if all of our problems can be magically legislated away.

I'm not saying that we should not learn lessons from tragedies such as that of young Ephraim Brown, or the Dawson College shootings, etc. If there are genuine flaws in our system then we should not hesitate to fix them, but perhaps we should actually examine the system that is in place a little bit before acting rashly and opting to reform the system. The police need to be allowed to conduct their investigation (I understand they already have a suspect in custody) and the courts need to have the chance to administer justice. I think a little time and thought is necessary before we adopt any major changes.

I'm going to stop here for now because as I said, I do not intend to get into a debate over gun control. At the very least, I don't want to use this poor boy's death to further my own political cause. I wish that a few of our country's leaders would take this same step.