July 2018: Danforth Shooting in Toronto, 15 Dead

[tomahawk6]

When I saw the headline I thought it may have been Chicago scary that it happened in Toronto,a place I thought was safe.My prayers are with those injured and I hope there will be a speedy recovery.

MSN

- mod edit to add date to subject line & update # of victims -

 

[brihard]

1 dead, 13 more wounded including a little girl. Police responded and exchanged fire with the shooter, who is also dead. There’s video of the shooter walking down the street, turning and shooting into a restaurant... So at first glance, an active shooter stopped in the act by police.

 

[dapaterson]

White male 29 identified as shooter. Police currently withholding name.

 

[brihard]

White male 29 identified as shooter. Police currently withholding name.

They’ll be thoroughly and quickly ripping his life apart looking for any links to anything concerning, potentially e exciting search warrants on his residence and other properties of interest, etc.

I would guess we’ll see a mid morning press conference that will mostly just confirm what we already know, with more to follow once the name leaks, which it probably quickly will.

 

[EpicBeardedMan]

"Nearby at Danforth and Logan, police officers moved bystanders back from the area, saying they had to detonate a package. It’s not clear what was detonated. Police have not released any information about what officers found."

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/toronto/article-one-dead-13-injured-gunman-killed-in-toronto-mass-shooting/

 

[mariomike]

That section of the Danforth ( between Broadview Ave. and Jones Ave. ) is shut down every second weekend in August for a festival.

Attendance is estimated at 1.6 million people.

Be interesting to see how many show up this year.

 

[tomahawk6]

Your average citizen is frozen in place even though the bad guy has to reload.The only heroes here are the police that are willing to take down a bad guy to save lives.

 

[Jarnhamar]

New York city has 34'000 police officers for a population of 8.5 million,  half as many police officers as all of Canada, around 69'000 according to statscan, for a population of 38 million.

Toronto should be no where near NYCs crime rate.

I hope the police do a great job tracking down where the gun came from, if he wasn't a legal gun owner,  and hammer the shit out of everyone even remotely involved.

I find it's grabbing low hanging fruit when "gun violence" is used. Toronto has a crime problem which includes gangs and llegal guns.

 

[tomahawk6]

Hand guns aren't easy to get right ?

 

[brihard]

Hand guns aren't easy to get right ?

On the street they increasingly are. Time will tell where this one came from.

 

[Cdn Blackshirt]

I'd be quite happy if started holding the illegal gun dealers much more accountable.

If an illegal gun you sold was used in a murder = Automatic 10 years.

And before the naysayers jump in and start complaining about "What about the UHaul dealers?", it's apples and oranges.

One is renting a legal good which has many legal uses.  The other is selling an illegal item which only has illegal applications.

 

[Halifax Tar]

I'd be quite happy if started holding the illegal gun dealers much more accountable.

If an illegal gun you sold was used in a murder = Automatic 10 years.

And before the naysayers jump in and start complaining about "What about the UHaul dealers?", it's apples and oranges.

One is renting a legal good which has many legal uses.  The other is selling an illegal item which only has illegal applications.

I dont think any of my fellow gun loving folks would have any issue with any illegal gun dealers being prosecuted to the fullest.

These miscreants and their work only tarnishes legal firearms owners and put us in a very bad light. 

 

[brihard]

I don't have recent hard data, but anecdotally most of Ontario's crime guns are being smuggled in from the US. Not too hard to move stuff across the border given how perfunctory border checks are, and a clean gun from the states can get quadruple the price on the street...

 

[Colin Parkinson]

A study done about 10-15 years ago put it at 85% of the crime guns were smuggled in. The CBSA was finding about 1300guns out of the 3% of cargo getting searched.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I'd be quite happy if started holding the illegal gun dealers much more accountable.

If an illegal gun you sold was used in a murder = Automatic 10 years.

And before the naysayers jump in and start complaining about "What about the UHaul dealers?", it's apples and oranges.

One is renting a legal good which has many legal uses.  The other is selling an illegal item which only has illegal applications.

Depending on how you look at it all firearms are illegal and the government gives you permission to break the law if you pay them  ;D

I mostly agree that the UHaul argument can be apples and oranges but it can also support the argument over how easy a determined murderer can kill people without a gun.

I wonder if we will see common factors in this case like lots of ignored warning signs, criminal record, violent social media posts etc..

 

[NavyShooter]

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/07/23/shooter-on-the-danforth-was-firing-like-someone-in-a-video-game-witness-says.html

The religion of peace strikes again?

 

[tomahawk6]

Perhaps allowing certain citizens to carry concealed might be good, start allowing CF members as they are familiar with weapons.

 

[Jarnhamar]

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/07/23/shooter-on-the-danforth-was-firing-like-someone-in-a-video-game-witness-says.html

The religion of peace strikes again?

Of the 15 victims, eight were female.

Wonder why the star felt the need to point this out.

 

[EpicBeardedMan]

According to this article he suffered from mental health issues.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/police-id-danforth-shooter-1.4757566

 

[brihard]

Perhaps allowing certain citizens to carry concealed might be good, start allowing CF members as they are familiar with weapons.

Their 'familiarity' with weapons does not, to mind, extend to any particular degree of expertise. A small number of CAF members are pretty experienced and proficient with pistols. The rest might occasionally get to play with them but fall well short of anything I would want to see for someone carrying.

Aside from that, as frequently as I've seen CAF members saying really outlandish stuff on police use of force discussions, I have zero faith that CAF training or mindset appropriately equips people to be carrying firearms on civvy street. Honestly, soldiers and vets are some of the worst armchair quarterbacks for what should be done in use of force situations. There's quite a strong hubris from soldiers who believe that carrying a rifle in training or combat operations carries across perfectly or even adequately for being armed for daily carry for self/public defense. Many are very out to lunch. All that said- military training/experience should not be a factor that is at all in play in determining whether someone should or should not be permitted to carry a firearm in public in Canada.

There's not a chance we are going to see private open or concealed carry of firearms expanded generally in Canada, and I'm fine with that. There's no significant political appetite here, and few of us want to see us move along the trajectory to what we see south of the border. Just no thanks.