God Help us all with these people in charge

The Toronto Star (registration required)unveils the action plan by the McGirlieman government to squash, and I do mean squash, violence on the streets of Toronto. I can’t even say its original but it is breathtaking in its’ utter stupidity:

Attorney General Michael Bryant has introduced a series of initiatives to tackle Toronto's growing gun violence, including a firearms amnesty. "We're creating a gun amnesty program that will encourage those who possess illegal guns to turn them in," Bryant told a Queen's Park news conference yesterday. However, he couldn't provide details on how it will work. The government also outlined plans to inspect gun stores and improve the witness protection program.

(..)

Other government initiatives include:

· Inspecting gun shops to determine whether they are safely storing their weapons and whether enforcement should be beefed up.

· expanding the province's witness protection program to encourage witnesses to gun crimes to come forward.

· Allowing Crown prosecutors to introduce community impact evidence before the court in an effort to get tougher sentences.

All this, while Toronto police hunt an “armed and dangerous” 15 year old alleged murderer who apparently has an illegal firearm in his possession and seemingly has the wherewithal to use it. What are the odds that this adolescent thug will take advantage of the proposed gun amnesty? Is there anyone so deluded that they really believe a gun amnesty will induce the thugs and various slime-o-meters to turn in their weapons? Our last gun amnesty was in 2002 and was codenamed Operation Gun Shop. From where I am sitting in 2005; Operation Gun Shop can’t be considered a success by any measure.

I like the idea of expanding the witness protection program but right now the issue seems to be that the police can’t seem to find any witnesses to expand the program for in the first place; so it’s kind lame. Then there is the idea of using Community Impact Statements at sentencing to influence judges to pass longer or harsher sentences. Though I have seen very little evidence that the current sentences handed down when Victim Impact Statements have been routinely used has resulted in influencing the Justices to pronounced longer sentences.

I have to hand it to the McGirlieman government for targeting the owners of gun shops and implying they are the source of the recent gun violence on the streets of Toronto - at least, its not as tiresome as reading some Canadian official blaming the Americans, again. I guess gun shop owners are this week’s new “pit-bull owners”. But after watching the anarchy in New Orleans I certainly don’t think my inner city neighbors would behave any differently if a blackout or the fall-out from a natural disaster lasted longer than a few days. With McGirlieman and his Fiberals in charge it’s long time the past the time I was legally armed and dangerous – in my home.