Christie paints a picture of the very poignant scene that caught my eye as well on the news coverage - that of the line of children holding hands and being led away from the scene of the shooting of Ephraim Brown in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
When I saw that clip, I was trying to understand why children of that age would be up at that hour in the first place, much less wandering around outdoors in the dark during a very large and rowdy party.
The police had apparently been there earlier in the evening. Yesterday's Post carried an article in the print edition, "Police say accused has gang history"(Sorry I don't have the link):
"...Police visited the party at about 10 a.m. (typo), three hours before the shooting to ask the party-goers to turn down their music, said Alisha Pomnainville. As the night progressed, said Detective Sergeant Gary Giroux, strangers started blending int the party crowd. A dispute led to multiple shots being fired, one of which hit the 11-year-old in the neck..."
In an accompanying article, Pomnainville relates more of the story:
On Saturday night her five year-old, Jahqwan, went to the birthday party for his friend Jayshawn, who was turning seven. Two 18-year-olds celebrated their birthdays in the same home that night, and by 9 p.m. the crowd had grown to more than 100, she said.
"You could feel there was a bad mood in the air," she said. "All these young men were standing there looking at each other, and every boy had their hoodies on."
She grabbed her boy and went home; a few hours later shots rang out and another boy was dead.
So this mother correctly relied on her maternal instincts and common sense and got her youngster away from potential danger.
There were many warnings signs of problems before the tragic event occurred. Yet obviously many parents chose to turn a blind eye.
Blatchford, in her op-ed, describes the need to look at the many small parts of this disturbing puzzle that contribute to the overall problem. I would suggest that the mothers and any available fathers take a long, hard look at themselves first.
Yet there is so much noise, in the wake of Ephraim's slaying, that the temptation is to give up, do nothing, or in the more modern manner, parrot some of the noise and do nothing. The trick, rather, is to do a little and pray others do the same.
We'll all do our part, but I pray that the parents take responsibility as well.
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Related: From Lorrie Goldstein's Missing the target on gun crime:
Related: From Lorrie Goldstein's Missing the target on gun crime:
...As he (Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz) noted in a recent parliamentary debate, of the 5,194 homicides in Canada between 1997 and 2005, 118, or 2.27% were committed with a registered gun, 63, or 1.21%, were committed with a gun registered to the accused murderer and 111, or 2.14%, were committed by a person who held a valid firearms licence.
Of Canada's two million licensed gun owners, 111, or 0.00555%, used their firearm to murder someone.
Since most criminals don't register their guns, why would they obey a "ban?"
On the other hand, in 2005, 64% of accused murderers had a prior criminal record, including 6% for homicide.
Gee, do you think the real problem here might be the criminals and an absurdly lax justice system?
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Jack really cuts through the politically-correct smokescreen here - Elected politicians and stupid games.
4 comments:
Joanne, I must demand that you delete all that information concerning gun crime as it will personally offend all people who are screaming for a ban once again. Have you no compassion for their cause, no matter how ill informed it is. LOL, Just having a little fun!!!!!!
Kingston - At the very least it will likely offend the guns, which of course is that segment of Canada doing all the killing.
What do you mean criminals won't obey a gun ban?! They have to! Its the law!
All these crazy right wing ideas are as dangerous a threat to our society as farmer Joe's shotgun! After we ban shotguns we should ban right wingers!
Forget about deterance, what those kids need is a few more basketball courts to keep them out of trouble. A soccer field or two would be nice too. And implementing Kyoto would reduce crime as well!
Elected Politicians and Stupid games?
That's right Jo!
The guilty parties in this are the pols and bureaucrats who are incapable of dealing with crime and use the gun issue and lawful gun ownership as a diversion and lawful citizen firearms owners as scapegoats for their own incompetence.
We really need rights of property ownership in our CRF!
It would also be helpful if MSM types were less inclined to give space and time to the nuts like Wendy Cukier or at least show some intelligent skepticism over the blathering of the nurse-nanny set.
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