Toronto Shooting Leaves Two Dead

Mass Shooting in Toronto

Much like in the United States, Canada’s larger cities are starting to see much more gun violence than they saw even 5 years ago. Handguns are starting to be used more and more and the shooters are firing off rounds and not caring where they end up or who gets hurt or killed. Here in Canada, we are often critical of gun laws south of the border when mass shootings occur there. In the United States, we often hear of mass shootings that involve those that occur in schools. Canada has also had a very bad school shooting, but we don’t seem to have shooters who are competing to see who is able to rack up the highest hit count like seems to be the case in the United States.

15 People Gunned Down

Aftermath of a thief looking for valuables in a parked vehicle. Rear windows is broken on the grey car.
Aftermath of a thief looking for valuables in a parked vehicle.

Last night, shortly after 10 pm, a shooter in the Greektown area of Toronto, was walking down Danforth Avenue when he opened fire into area restaurants. Witnesses state that they heard numerous shots fired and that the shooter had stopped to reload a full clip before emptying it into more people. In the end, two people were left dead, a 10-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman. Another 13 people were injured during the rampage and their injuries range from minor to critical. The shooter also exchanged gunfire with the police and ended up dead as well. It’s still unclear whether the shooter was killed by police during the exchange of gun fire or if the shooter turned his weapon on himself.

An Experienced Shooter

People who witnessed the shooting say that the shooter was firing into stores and restaurants like he was in a video game. It was also said that the shooter seemed to be well versed in the use of a handgun and used a stance like those who have been taught to use weapons in the military or police force. The gunman was dressed in all black attire and carried a satchel, which most likely contained loaded clips and additional ammunition. Clearly, the shooter had a plan and it will probably take police some time to learn more of what that plan entailed or what the motive was behind the shooting. The name of the shooter has been released, 29-year-old Faisal Hussain of Toronto. Currently, the Special Investigations Unit is also looking into this matter as there was an exchange of gunfire between the police and the shooter.

Police Need to Start Acting Now

I don’t know what police departments are planning to do to stop this escalating gun violence, but they need to start acting now before more innocent people die at the hands of these mindless criminals. Police need to start investigating all crimes that involve a degree of violence. Here in Ottawa, I’ve seen vehicles broken into and thousands of dollars of contractor tools stolen, only to have police come over and look and leave a business card and telling the owner that they are welcome to make a report online. Are you kidding me? A person’s vehicle was broken into with windows needing to be replaced and all their tools stolen, and he has the option of filing a report online? In the amount of time that the police spent talking to us regarding the incident, they could have made the report and filed it themselves, but the officers attending the scene said that they didn’t have the time or the resources to investigate such trivial crimes. We had other crimes committed on our coop property and again, we are told that we can file a report online if we believe it’s something worth pursuing. Often these smaller crimes lead to the larger ones and if these criminals that are committing property crimes know that police aren’t going to investigate, what’s stopping them from committing larger crimes.

No End in Sight

I have a distinct feeling that things are going to get much worse before they get any better. Criminals know that the police are too busy or just aren’t willing to waste resources on anything but the most serious of crimes. It’s getting to the point that people are going to be afraid to leave their homes unless they have no other options. Even with the stricter gun laws here in Canada, we are seeing more and more handguns on the streets and clearly, the criminals are getting them from somewhere. The only people who should have handguns in Canada are those who have undergone extreme background checks and either work in law enforcement or belong to a gun club, and if it’s the latter, the handgun should only be transported for attending a shooting range or gun club. And those trips to the shooting range and gun club by my understanding, must be documented and you are not able to vary from that route when transporting the weapon.

In any case, what happened in Toronto last night is extremely disturbing and hopefully, doesn’t happen again. Unfortunately, shootings are on the rise and has become a very bad problem for Canada’s largest city, Toronto. Ottawa isn’t doing much better and here it isn’t uncommon to turn on the local news after dinner to see that there’s been another shooting. Police need to stop worrying about being accused of carding certain segments of society and started arresting the criminals that are committing these violent crimes. If most of those criminals happen to be a specific race, color or religion, it doesn’t matter, a criminal is a criminal and we need to get them off our streets before more children and innocent people are needlessly killed over what are often drug deals gone bad for a few dollars. No one’s life should be taken for a $20 piece of crack or small bag of weed.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

GP Joa

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