People who took CALM and various other squishy, post industrial-focused classes in school might be shocked to learn that guns aren’t made by gun gnomes, or firearms fairies in some U.S. factory. [b]Anybody[/b/ with a modicum of skill and a lathe, &c. can crank 'em out. Right now, some rag-swaddled, illiterate Pashtun in Waziristan is cranking out AK-47 knockoffs in his mud hut. Ban handguns and somebody'll make them illegally. As for 'social programmes,' the best for addressing the crime problem is the penal system.

[quote]I’m coming a little late here, but I just want to note that I’ve met a number of Blacks from the Caribbean who resent not every individual Jamaican but the fact that criminal elements within the Jamaican community are giving a bad reputation to all Blacks[/quote]

There’s nothing wrong with Carribean culture, single mothers, or whatever. (If this was the case, why are there also gangbangers from patriarchal Asian families?) The problem is that too many immigrants from everywhere (including the U.S.) are let in without background checks. Jane & Finch-style ghettos are created in the name of ‘multiculturalism’ and the scumbags recruit youngsters from ‘the community’ into their fold. Better screening of immigrants (some ‘refugees’ are really fugitives) and scattering new arrivals throught the Country would help.

[quote]I mean who consumes the drugs in which these gangs trade?[/quote]

True. All the whiney lefties complaining that the government should “do something” should stop supporting gangs with their pot purchases.

Adam

BTW: Ever notice that armoured car drivers carry handguns? Where would Miller, McGuinty & al get their ATM dough from if there weren’t any guns? And why can you only carry a gun to guard a bag of twenties?

I must say that if I were, for example, in China and there were a group of Whites engaging disproportionately in criminal behaviour and bringing all Whites under suspicion, I would feel resentment towards that group.

However, in the case of Jamaican gangs in Toronto, I’ve got to place some blame on the White community. I mean who consumes the drugs in which these gangs trade? In many cases, upscale Whites who are told that drugs are “cool” and will help them “expand their consciousness” (by White “experts”).

(So what kind of social programs could stop this violence? What alternative life path do these youths have?)

Social programs have to start in the home with the right kind of “role models.” Let’s face it, lots of us grew up in relative poverty (e.g., my mother was a single mom in the late 1940′s before there was such a thing as welfare) and/or have had difficult childhoods but we don’t resort to violence of a violent lifestyle.

So, the best social program is a home where there are rules, dreams and encouragement and positive role models — even if only in the extended family — rather than violent gangs where members model a criminal lifestyle while trying to become a replacement family.

I agree to an extent but social programs alone cannot solve everything. For academic social programs the culture of the recipients has to be learning-oriented to begin with, and the the ancestral/birth land for most of these gangsters (Jamaica) is not particularly scholarly by default. So what kind of social programs could stop this violence? What alternative life path do these youths have?

Unfortunately, the prospects for blue collar work in Ontario aren’t good – the rising dollar means manufacturing jobs and other jobs related to export are leaving in droves. All that remains are either low-paying retail jobs (there is little chance that a drug dealer will give up his tax-free career to sell handbags) and white collar jobs requiring at least an undergraduate degree (if not more).

The real solution would be a greater investment in social programs of course, which Miller does advocate. His focus on the troubled neighborhoods should help in this regard. Unfortunately the funding the city needs is never forthcoming from the province.