More young Canadians are using guns in assaults, robberies and homicides, even as Canada's overall rate of violent crime involving firearms remained stable in 2006, Statistics Canada reports.
The rate of young people aged 12 to 17 accused of a firearm-related offence rose 32 per cent between 2002 and 2006, driven primarily by robberies, the Statscan study said. In 2006, 1,287 youths were accused of a violent offence involving a gun.
Canadian police services reported just over 8,100 victims of violent gun crime, accounting for 2.4 per cent of all victims of violence. Other types of weapons were used more often: Knives accounted for 6.2 per cent of violent victimizations; clubs and other blunt instruments were used against 3 per cent of victims, the report said.
Ron Melchers, a professor of criminology at University of Ottawa, said the spike in youth gun crime is a result of people getting involved in serious criminal activity at a younger and younger age, primarily in Canada's large urban areas.
Behold the legacy of "progressivism" and "liberalism".
You know, the Left argues that crime "isn't getting worse", that there's "not more" crime.
Well, I say to the Left, one victim is too many.
Our agenda must become to aim to create a crime-free Canada. Sure, no crime at all is impossible, but the value behind the anti-crime stance of Canadian society must be made clear and unmistakable. Being against crime and imposing tough consequences upon lawbreakers, particularly violent ones, must become one of our key values... and frequently be spoken of as such.
Liberalism/socialism/secular humanism doesn't do a bloody thing to reduce crime. Therefore let's do what we know works, even if it means actually taking even kids, by force, off the streets to prevent them from going around shooting people anymore. What's preferable, taking a child into secure custody, preventing him/her from going out at all without official escort, all the while reeducating, reindoctrinating the child in proper attitude and social behavior... or simplistically saying, "Don't do that again. Here's some hugs. Here's some very, very quick, one-size-fits-all, socialist-prescribed 'rehabilitation'. Now get out of here." and then hearing that they've gone and shot and killed an innocent with a Desert Eagle they bought off of some terrorist sleeper cell member or some Hells Angels member on the street?
As for releasing them to their parents, well, not all parents are law-abiding, not all have values, not all care worth a shit about their kids or about other people, so, in such cases of irresponsible parents, the kids oughtn't be released back to them, for that'd do no good, unless, however, we force the parents to learn to become responsible and then actually prove they're responsible or else lose their kids.
The Left has its own "ideas" of how to deal with crime, including youth crime. But they've had decade after decade after decade to demonstrate that their way of doing things actually works. And it doesn't. We know this. For example, Rudy Giuliani proved that cracking down and taking criminals off the streets reduces crime, something his Leftist mayoral predecessors never did.
Canadians have, after all, a Charter right to safety and security of the person. For the state apparatus to allow violent thugs and scumbags to roam the streets with banned weapons is to violate this right. If the state apparatus isn't going to crack down on the bad people with the guns, then at least restore the Charter right of the law-abiding by allowing them to become licenced to carry handguns for self-defence and defence of others against crazed, off-meds gunmen who walk into public places and shoot everyone in sight.
