At the end of a press conference, right after the shootings on Toronto’s Danforth Avenue, a reporter tossed a final question at Police Chief Mark Saunders. Saunders was already heading off-camera. I didn’t catch the question, but I’m fairly sure I heard Saunders say, “There is no magic bullet.”
And if he didn’t say it, he should have.
Because although it was a singularly inappropriate cliché – after all, 15 people had just been shot with bullets – it was also exactly the right answer.
Because a magic bullet is what everyone wants.
Toronto Mayor John Tory led off the magic bullet wish list, blaming too many guns in Toronto. He’s right on fact; less so on solution.
Since Stephen Harper cancelled the federal gun registry in 2012, Tim Naumetz reported, nearly two million rifles, shotguns and handguns were imported for retail sale across Canada.
And that’s just the legal sales. It can’t count the number smuggled in from the Excited States, where the NRA considers gun ownership a god-given right. Or those stolen from legitimate gun owners, and then sold illegally.
Things that won’t work
A CBC reported went further. Before Harper killed the gun registry, 75 per cent of firearms were trafficked from the U.S. By 2017, about half of guns on the market originated in Canada, bought legally by gun owners and illegally sold.
Tougher gun laws will work only with law-abiding people. Rational people. People who accept the standards and values of a community.
A deranged gunman is none of those.
On Tuesday, Toronto city council debated a $44 million five-year strategy to combat gun violence that has roughly doubled this year. One item -- 40 additional CCTV cameras. Which might catch more shooters. But won’t prevent any.
Another oft-quoted “magic bullet” calls for stiffer penalties.
Penalties have never worked to stop crime. England used to apply the death penalty for stealing a loaf of bread. If you’re starving anyway, the prospect of extending your life for a few days far outweighs the risk of losing it.
Besides, if stiffer penalties worked, why would so many mass shooters take their own lives? Their own actions demonstrate that even the ultimate deterrent doesn’t deter them.
Shirking responsibility
There were other “magic bullets.” More cops, for instance. Police Chief Saunders admitted that at peak times, he has only 245 officers -- of some 4800 uniformed personnel – available for immediate deployment.
And more mental health services. The parents of 29-year-old Faisal Hussain, the Danforth shooter, issued a statement: “Our son had severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life. The interventions of professionals were unsuccessful. Medications and therapy were unable to treat him.”
Turning the problem over to police or to mental health workers will not work, because it allows the rest of us to shirk our responsibility.
Looking for a fairy godmother
“Who, me?” you say. Yes, you and me. Because in my experience, conflicts only escalate into crises because people who could have intervened, didn’t.
Maybe they didn’t want to offend a friend. Maybe they honestly believed that if they smoothed things over, the problem would go away.
Politics talks about “the silent majority.” I prefer to think of them as “the deliberately disengaged.” The people who could have done something, and didn’t.
For example, someone knew that Faisal Hussain had obtained a gun. And someone must have known that he had practiced shooting and reloading.
Someone knew he that he fantasized about killing.
To my mind, those persons -- whether singular or plural – are complicit in Hussain’s crime.
Similarly, someone failed to provide the mental health services Hussain needed. I don’t know why. Maybe he opted out. Maybe he no longer qualified. Maybe he broke rules.
Mental health workers chronically deal with crippling caseloads. I know that they have to work within government guidelines. Nevertheless, I contend, the professionals who failed Faisal Hussain have to share some responsibility for his actions.
As Toronto mayor John Tory said, about another shooting, “It’s time for us to be very aggressive in…saying: ‘You are not going to terrorize this city, and you are not going to engage in this kind of anti-social, unacceptable behaviour.’”
No one else can do it. Expecting someone else to resolve social problems is like expecting a fairy godmother to show up with a magic wand.
Or with Chief Saunders’ magic bullet.
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Copyright © 2018 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
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YOUR TURN
In last week’s column, I tried to make the case that the false news that circulates today on social media is little different from the gossip and rumour that caused suffering and deaths in earlier centuries. The difference is the speed at which those bits of fake news travel.
Two readers, Frieda Hogg and Cliff Boldt, felt that my comments about “fake news” were mirrored in an Avaaz mailing about the reasons why Donald Trump is “Putin’s poodle.” You can read it for yourself at https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/shocking_truth_about_trump/
Isabel Gibson also forwarded an internet piece, from Psychology Today, which asks “Why are we so Bad at Detecting Lies” -- https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/living-single/201305/why-are-we-so-bad-detecting-lies.
Isabel explained: “It seems from your examples that this is true for stories we hear at one remove. Maybe we should all wonder about our tendency to gullibility when a story pushes our emotional buttons, whatever they are.
“Your article also made me wonder whether people in general are good at detecting lies, and at least one meta-study with 24,000 participants suggests not, finding only a 54% accuracy, when straight chance would put us at 50/50.
“The author of the piece in Psychology Todaysays that we can't rely on verbal or visual clues alone. We need to learn to ask better questions.”
Bob Rollwagen noted, “’News’ is an interesting term. Twenty years ago it was something reporters chose to pass along as fact after doing some level of investigation and consideration of the social acceptance and their political leaning at the time. Then we all, also, felt safer walking home in the dark at night.
“We need to understand that social media is not news. It is ‘reaction, opinion, comment’ , at the level of what could be compared to soap box speakers a century ago. Mindless entertainment for the masses whom seem not to have the time to sort fact from fiction. Unfortunately, in this new global world there seems to be very little leadership and tribalism is returning. Canada is not exempt. We are located next to one the world’s biggest collection of tribes and they seem to have lost all sense of global responsibility. This is not news, fake or otherwise.
“As for the TWIT, it is ego not ethics, personal gain not social equality, that dictates [his actions].
“The Salem witch trails reflected education at that time. It is why some minority leaders work to limit educational systems.”
Tom Watson added his own example of the effects of false news: “It's often difficult in this online world, where information -- whether true or false -- circles the globe in a matter of minutes, to sort between fact and falsehood. We all know that the more frequently something is said the more it is believed.
“It reminds me of an incident in Leamington, Ontario, in the early 1960s, way before the age of the Internet. A meat store had built up a good business and had a good reputation for quality meat. Somehow the rumour began to circulate that the reason the meat from that store was always so tender and tasty was that the owners injected the animal with embalming fluid prior to slaughter. You can guess what happened: the business tanked. There was no truth to the rumour but that didn't stop false information from taking its toll. What turned the tide, of course, was that in time enough people came to see through the false information and were no longer willing to be sucked in by it.
“Therein lies the only hope against today's fake news -- for enough people to be willing not to buy it and, for those who profit from it being called out.”
As Monty Python used to say, “And now for something completely different.” I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was trying to write poetry again. I posted another piece to my Poetry webpage, http:// http://quixotic.ca/My-Poetryearlier this week, in which I experimented with style and format around the subject of the forest fires that are plaguing most of the world this summer. I’d love to hear your reactions.
To sign up for notifications about new posting, either write me directly, or send a blank email (no message) to poetry-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF…
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. (This is to circumvent filters that think too many links constitute spam.)
Ralph Milton ’s latest project is called “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at wwwDOTsinghallelujahDOTca
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca>
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom
Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawoodATgmailDOTcom to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom or twatsonATsentexDOTnet