'Why does anyone need a gun?': Toronto shooting prompts calls for handgun ban

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


As city reels from attack that left three dead and 13 injured, mayor leads push to ban sale of handguns and ammunition

Ashifa Kassam in Toronto
@ashifa_k
Wed 25 Jul 2018 14.11 EDT

Officials in Toronto are pushing for a ban on the sale of handguns and handgun ammunition, as Canada’s biggest city continues to reel from a shooting that left three people dead and injured 13 others.

“Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all?” John Tory, Toronto’s mayor, said on Tuesday as the city council passed a motion to urge the federal and provincial government to enact the ban.

Before Sunday’s shooting, councillors had already set aside the day to debate a range of initiatives aimed at tackling rising gun violence in the city – a discussion that took on new urgency after the attack.

Residents had been out enjoying a warm summer’s night when a lone gunman, later identified as Faisal Hussain, opened fire along one of the city’s liveliest stretches.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/25/toronto-shooting-handgun-ban-canada

[PoliticAverse]

1. "Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all?" -do the people protecting him have guns?

[7962]

3. Ha!

You know you're not allowed to bring that up!

[elias7]

4. I think it's different as a public figure - high visibility target

Not a fair argument

[LanternWaste]

7. Sounds about as rational as asking why a soldier would have a firearm.

We all get a wee bit irrational when it comes to our sacred cows.

[MarcA]

2. In order to make this workable a ban on possession would be needed.

Otherwise they would be purchased outside the city or the Province.

[NickB79]

5. I thought Canada already highly regulated handguns?

[christx30]

6. I was reading a thread from DU from 2011

where a guy was walking out of Walmart after cashing his paycheck and someone put something to his neck and took his wallet. Robber ended up shot. The shooter was arrested. I followed up on the shooter's name. Turns out, charges were dropped.
I'm sure he was glad that he had a gun. I can't imagine what I would do if my entire paycheck got stolen. That's rent, food for my children, bus fare. Nothing I can really do without.

[cbdo2007]

8. You still don't have the right to shoot someone just because they stole your wallet.

That's the problem with a gray area...half the time you are right and shoot the correct person, the other half of the time you are wrong and misjudged the situation and shoot the wrong person.

Are we as a society ok with people getting shot incorrectly half the time??

[christx30]

9. I mean, if you're sure of your target,

I’m perfectly ok with criminals get shot dead.
In the case, the criminal grabbed the victim from behind and stuck something sharp against his neck and demanded the wallet. Criminal had just seen the victim cash his paycheck at Walmart. Victim shot the criminal.
If someone stole my entire paycheck, I’d happily shoot him. My family and I shouldn’t suffer because of some criminal. The criminal and his family should suffer.
What would you do is someone stole two weeks pay from you? “Oh well, kids. Looks like we’re going to the food pantry and eating stale bread for the next two weeks.”
And the prosecutor apparently felt the guy had the right to shoot, because the charges were dropped. The victim is a free man today.

[cbdo2007]

10. I would give him the wallet and go to the police. That is how the law works.

Again, your interpretation of what is happening may not be what is really happening. I would rather err on the side of NOT SHOOTING SOMEONE than shooting them and being wrong.

Everyone taking the law into their on hands, is chaos and a sign of an uncivilized society.

Not to mention that the chances of that happening to you are very slim to begin with. And the chances of him inflicting greater violence on you, the unsuspecting victim, are better than YOU inflicting any kind of violence on him because you were caught off guard. In fact, if you own a gun, the chances of it being used in a domestic/family situation, or suicide ARE FAR GREATER, by multiple times, than the fantasy scenario you have come up with as needing your justification of owning and carrying a gun.

But don't let facts get in your way....