BLAME SHIFTING
Some Canadians are blaming the lack of gun control in the US for their growing problem with violence.

"It's a sign that the lack of gun laws in the US is allowing guns to flood across the border that are literally being used to kill people in the streets of Toronto," (Toronto Mayor David) Miller said.

Miller said Toronto, a city of nearly three million, is still very safe compared to most American cities, but the illegal flow of weapons from the United States is causing the noticeable rise in gun violence.

I have been (and still am) a proponent of handgun control -- but even I recognize that there are limitations to what regulation can do. If the Canadian regulation of handguns doesn't control the situation within their borders what makes them think that regulation on our side of the border is going to be any more successful?

We already have regulations which prohibit convicted felons from having handguns -- yet they continue to carry them. We have regulations which outlaw concealed weapons -- but people still conceal them. We have waiting periods and require background checks before someone can get a handgun -- but people circumvent the rules. Even if we completely outlawed handguns they'd still make their way across our borders -- along with illegal drugs and illegal aliens.

The situation is a lot more complex than the mayor of Toronto acknowledges. Regulation is but a small component in the equation. Rules and laws have value -- but they are limited. And the Canadian authorities need to realize that they as a people are going through a lot of the same societal and culture changes that the rest of the shrinking world is experiencing. Europe, which on a whole has more gun regulation than the US, is experiencing gun and gang issues, too. And it doesn't have to do with proximity to the US.

It's too easy to blame foreign influences for our problems. We Americans do the same thing, though. We blame our problems on imported drugs or imported workers or imported religions. But whatever problems are associated with these things wouldn't grow so easily if we were not cultivating the soil for them with our own anything-goes approach to life. And the more we talk about how the problems come from abroad the less likely it is that we'll see ourselves as needing to take responsibility for what we can do about the issues.