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Toronto has held up well in the aftermath of Sunday night’s horrific attack, the second mass-casualty incident in the city in recent months. Within minutes of the investigators’ police tape coming down along the normally bustling Danforth Avenue, the scene of the rampage, Torontonians were back, filling local businesses (which scrambled to reopen) and returning life to the streets. It was heartening.

The behaviour of Toronto’s city council, sadly, has proved far less inspiring.

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Politicians are going to politic, of course. And that’s especially true after a tragedy, when the desire to be seen to be doing something seems overpowering. So before much was even known about Faisal Hussain, the shooter, or where he’d obtained his pistol (illegally, it turns out), city council was passing motion after motion hammering the usual suspects: gun stores, firing ranges and lawful gun owners generally. A motion seeking to ban the legal sale of handguns in Toronto (and nationally) was also approved by council, with the mayor’s support.

Photo by Mark Blinch/CP

The fact that these matters are in the federal jurisdiction, not to mention unlikely to meaningfully improve public safety, seems not to have occurred to them. Passing the motions was the point. Not actually enacting things. The motions were meant to give councillors, and the mayor, a chance to grandstand.