The bullet casings have been cleared away. The shooting victims, mercifully this time, have been treated in hospitals instead of sent to the morgue.

Now what?

After 17 people were shot in Toronto in 14 separate incidents over the long weekend we’re left in that all-too-familiar place: Arguing over who is responsible and how best to stop this terrible gun violence.

People can’t even seem to agree on what the weekend’s spike in violence means.

Shootings are up (244 compared to 238 in Toronto by this time last year) but gun deaths are down considerably (19 compared to 30). Is that supposed to be a comfort or not?

“This is not Toronto,” says police Chief Mark Saunders.

But plenty of mothers in neighbourhoods where gun violence is common say this is indeed the Toronto they know and the one where they increasingly fear raising their families.

And everyone has been quick to point the finger at someone else who isn’t taking more action or the right action, including the police, the city, the province and Ottawa.

So let’s see if we can all agree on a couple things to get past this unhelpful stage. Gun violence, however sad it might be, is definitely part of this city. No level of government is doing enough. And there is no easy answer but a series of interconnected requirements that will take time to make a difference. So we need to get moving.

We should have a debate about whether police resources can be better deployed. But, above all, we must do more to ensure the police don’t have to come knocking.

It makes no sense to watch young people fail and then pay a fortune to police to lock them up. And that we are watching young people, whole neighbourhoods really, suffer through poverty, hopelessness and lack of opportunity was made crystal clear more than a decade ago in the seminal Roots of Youth Violence report.

And yet many of the recommendations in that 2008 provincial report were never acted on. The funding that was made available for youth initiatives then, and at other times, was short-term. That means good, community-based programs that can make a real difference in the lives of young people simply disappear until the next big tragedy comes along and money is, yet again, found to start new programs.

We can’t continue with this half-hearted, stop-and-go approach. Toronto, Ontario and Ottawa need to work together to fund the programs that have been identified as crucial to cutting the roots of gang and gun violence.

We know the dangers of economically and socially polarized communities and that’s only getting worse. There are far too many young men with too few opportunities for a better life. That makes them easy prey for gangs. Until we change that our communities will always be at risk of an outbreak of gun violence.

And it’s long past time to ban private handguns.

This needs to be done federally and not left to individual cities, as the Trudeau government ridiculously suggested it is contemplating.

For Toronto, in particular, that would be beyond pointless since Ontario Premier Doug Ford has no interest in banning handguns. And everyone already knows how willing Ford is to wield provincial power to impose his will on Toronto.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Of course, banning legal handguns would not make all the illegal ones on the streets disappear but it does reduce the potential supply. As we’ve said before, a measure doesn’t have to do everything to be worth doing.

We need to implement — and stick with — the range of strategies that will ultimately reduce gun violence. We can’t afford to keep pointing fingers and starting the debate all over again each time gun violence hits a point that’s just too big to ignore.

Read more about: