A
Ani_Ibi
Guest
There has been a spate of shooting of late in Toronto the Good. Something I have, thus far, only heard of in widely spaced crime reports in years past now inches closer to my front door.
Coupla years ago, big police vans start showing up in my hood. This would be after a gang shooting a little further north. A year ago a white hummer with a body hanging out of it and my street shut down. Now people I know coming back from a big funeral: more young people gunned down.
And people say that they feel a whole generation is being decimated; the raw grief of bludgeoned innocence and vanishing youth. Another person says that for young people, wearing a piece is like wearing Nike shoes.
How do guns figure in Canadian society? We do not have the ‘right to bear arms.’ We do not have the cultural understanding of guns which our cousins to the south have. We do not even have the same understanding of the military. The military is rarely discussed in Canada and, when it is, it is the American military ‘excesses’ which are self-righteously referenced.
Nevertheless, with organized crime firmly entrenched in Toronto, guns are a fact of life. It is indeed a cultural clash. The guns are there but our ability to reconcile them with our own culture is not there.
Complicating the mix is the need for perimeter security. Nafta has altered the power of Canadians to coddle the illusion of autonomy, of isolationism. 9/11 drove the nail into the coffin. Culturally we are not Americans. Manifest Destiny is a recipe for trouble. Yet our destinies are drawing closer together. Somehow, somewhere the die has been cast; we have crossed the Rubicon.
Before the CRTC, Canadians were vulnerable to American media. Now we must have ‘Canadian content’ and that has been beneficial to us. We are able to monitor the radio and television waves. But the gun culture is not so easily managed.
Guns are a part of American identity. Canadian identity has not (consciously) revolved around guns. Are guns a shadow culture in Canada or are they truly alien to our identity?
Should Canadian have the right to bear arms?
If not, then what is a reasonable response to the proliferation of illegal arms in Canada?
Here are two points of view on this situation, the first one liberal, the second one conservative:
American guns, Canadian violence
Mayor Miller’s moronic musings
I would be grateful to hear points of view from Americans and Canadians as regards perimeter security, what it looks like, and how we are going to manage both our gun crimes and our differences in attitudes toward guns in the climate of perimeter security.
Coupla years ago, big police vans start showing up in my hood. This would be after a gang shooting a little further north. A year ago a white hummer with a body hanging out of it and my street shut down. Now people I know coming back from a big funeral: more young people gunned down.
And people say that they feel a whole generation is being decimated; the raw grief of bludgeoned innocence and vanishing youth. Another person says that for young people, wearing a piece is like wearing Nike shoes.
How do guns figure in Canadian society? We do not have the ‘right to bear arms.’ We do not have the cultural understanding of guns which our cousins to the south have. We do not even have the same understanding of the military. The military is rarely discussed in Canada and, when it is, it is the American military ‘excesses’ which are self-righteously referenced.
Nevertheless, with organized crime firmly entrenched in Toronto, guns are a fact of life. It is indeed a cultural clash. The guns are there but our ability to reconcile them with our own culture is not there.
Complicating the mix is the need for perimeter security. Nafta has altered the power of Canadians to coddle the illusion of autonomy, of isolationism. 9/11 drove the nail into the coffin. Culturally we are not Americans. Manifest Destiny is a recipe for trouble. Yet our destinies are drawing closer together. Somehow, somewhere the die has been cast; we have crossed the Rubicon.
Before the CRTC, Canadians were vulnerable to American media. Now we must have ‘Canadian content’ and that has been beneficial to us. We are able to monitor the radio and television waves. But the gun culture is not so easily managed.
Guns are a part of American identity. Canadian identity has not (consciously) revolved around guns. Are guns a shadow culture in Canada or are they truly alien to our identity?
Should Canadian have the right to bear arms?
If not, then what is a reasonable response to the proliferation of illegal arms in Canada?
Here are two points of view on this situation, the first one liberal, the second one conservative:
American guns, Canadian violence
Mayor Miller’s moronic musings
I would be grateful to hear points of view from Americans and Canadians as regards perimeter security, what it looks like, and how we are going to manage both our gun crimes and our differences in attitudes toward guns in the climate of perimeter security.