Toronto's year of the gun revisited.

Toronto's year of the gun revisited.

The year of the gun we all know the stories right, drugs, gangs, ethnic youth getting access to guns, and then Toronto's year of the gun just exploded right.

That's the story and that's all there is to it, or is there more?

How many of these people were recently out on parole when they committed these crimes? Why were they out on parole?

How many of these people were out of jail or good community policing program behavior? Meaning that they were offered time out of jail if they agreed to take part in the new snitching programs that the city has on going?

How many were trying to walk away from this forced slavery program when they were eliminated?

How many were getting back at someone who had set them up for these programs?
How many gang members will be released back into the community because they agree to take part in these programs, as an extra set of eyes and ears for the community?

I can't judge these people who are looking at 15-20 years for gun related crimes, for choosing a life of slavery on the outside rather than a life of slavery on the inside.

I can blame a society who thinks that it's a good idea to let people who are committing the same exact crimes be bound by different rules, because they agree to join some snitch program.

I can also blame a society that does not stop to wonder what happens to these young people when they get a taste of freedom and decide that they don't want to be slaves for the rest of their lives, and try to leave these programs, only to realise that there is no way out, except maybe one.

It astounds me that these questions were not asked when we had our increase in the year of the gun. Sure gangs and drugs played a large part, but where there other factors that we were missing behind some of these crimes?

In other societies where these programs are instituted, they will kill you if you try to leave these programs. If you find out that your friends set you up to go to jail, you might just agree to take part in one of these programs long enough to get back on the outside so that you can find the person who set you up and settle the score.

These programs do more harm to the moral fiber of society than guns and drugs in the long run. Then the innocent get caught up in the cross fire of these programs, thus giving society a greater need for such programs, and the vicious cycle continues.

These programs have left lot's of scares on other societies, and wounds that have yet to heal. Do we know all the factors that contributed to the year of the gun? Are we ever likely to? Not if we don't stop to ask the questions.