Monday, July 23, 2018

Guns on the Danforth

Details are still pretty sketchy, but last night around 10 pm, a lone gunman shot up several restaurants along the Danforth from Logan to just east of Chester.  While no part of a city is completely immune to gun violence (there have been several shootings in the Entertainment District and fairly recently in Chinatown), this hits very close to home.  One woman is dead and the shooter is also dead, though it isn't clear if he took his own life.  Many wounded, including a 9 year-old girl. The motives aren't clear at this point, but it doesn't appear to be a targeted killing, either gang-related or an ex-boyfriend hunting down his ex-girlfriend.  Thus, it was someone who just wanted to terrorize the city.  I suppose we'll know more soon.

While it will never be possible to completely stop the flow of guns from the States, given the fairly porous border, it won't take too many more incidents like this for the federal and provincial government to crack down much harder on gun ownership, particularly in cities.  That's a complete contrast to the States.

My thoughts go out to the wounded and hope they recover quickly, as well as to the families impacted.  I'm obviously glad I wasn't out and about.  While Pape subway is technically open this morning (Chester will be closed), I think it will be a total mess over there.  I'll take the 506 Carlton instead.  Incidentally, this is the last day before they start detouring the 506 to avoid Gerrard and Broadview, which will be totally closed.  I have a meeting tomorrow where I would have preferred to take the 506, but I suspect this will add at least 10-15 minutes to the travel time.  Of course, if the rain is hard enough tonight, it may be out of the system for tomorrow, and I can just bike instead.  That would be preferable.

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