The Deadliest Import

There's a sobering story out of Toronto this morning.

Apparently what happened is that there was a schoolyard fight in a neighborhood inhabited by homemade Blood and Crip gang types, and the fight ended with one student pursuing Jordan Manners, a 9th grade student, into a classroom and shooting him in the chest. Police are hunting for the as yet unidentified shooter.

Mr. David Miller, mayor of that fair city, argues that the national government should stop up the loopholes that let guns into Canada from Down Below, and that Ottawa ought to get serious with the United States to block that flow of weapons.

With all due respect to Mr. Miller, the problem seems to be one of demand, and of culture.

He has nothing to fear from weapons in the hands of law abiding, responsible people, and he never has had reason to fear them.

But neither he, nor I, nor all the people on both sides of the border with the best intentions in the world can prevent thugs from obtaining weapons if they want them. Anyway, last I heard Canada polices all entrants to their territory-so why aren't they doing something constructive here?

It could just as easily been a shank, a motorcycle chain, a garrison belt, a fist, a ball bat, or a humble zip gun that delivered the fatal blow. The evil to be combatted is in the heart of the offender, but it's much easier to point the figure at a brute, inanimate object.

The deadliest import is the thug culture that exists in the neighborhood. Until those people decide they're going to kick the gangbangers out and live ordinary lives like the rest of us, this story is likely to be repeated in Toronto and other places.