If they didn't use guns, they'd run you over with their car, stab you with a knife, shoot you with a crossbow, or smack you over the head with a baseball bat.

Violent people will use anything at their disposal. Be grateful most criminals are very poor shots.

I will not talk about the gun argument, I have my opinions and no gun supporter will change that. We live in each others acceptance of said opinions.

That being what it is....youths on the streets gets a firearm and all of a sudden you have a negatively inflated sense of self esteem, leading to the contined problem.

Agreed. This is stuff I've studied in my juvenile justice class. There'* so many things the problems arise from. Ultimately, it is the relationships and influences around a person that effect whether a person will be a delinquent or not, but getting a hold of weapons, and not just guns for that matter, make things so much worse.

for some reason i just dont see canada having "gangs". yeah ive never been their but i just cant see it. but still non the less gangs arent something to mess with. when i went to grand rapids public schools gangs were very well known and theri was fights everyday and u even had to walk threw a metal dector when u walked in the school. those were years in school i will never forget.

Im very biased and have a strong hate for any gangbanger. Most are just wannabee mafia members, but the serious ones are the dangerous ones. They are the group that go out each day to the range and shoot, or take karate classes. I thought I read somewhere Canada has a lot of Asian gangs up there? Anyone know the types up there?

At my high school this past year we would have groups of people from other cities come to our school and try to start fights for no other reason then race. I know atleast once someone brought a gun but the police got him after he was inside the school for sometime. Which is kinda upseting becasue 10 years ago in my same town we had a person with some kind of mental disorder come into the middle school and start shooting and ended up killing someone. All in a town that only has 15'000 people in it (pretty small in my opinon)

But I agree if someone wants to hurt someone and can't just use their fists to fight a real fight they will use anything they can get their hands on.

The Malvern Crew. The Galloway Boys. Two feuding gangs in the east end of Toronto, luckily I'm in the west end. A whole 'nother group here.

Thing is, this gun violence hits home. A lot of the offenders and victims are as young as 17 and are 18, 19, 20... these are the kids I grew up with, some are being picked off one by one. I knew plenty of troublemakers - fortunately I knew better and went out of my way in picking a high school in a better part of town. My high school didn't install a couple surveillance cameras until halfway through my senior year last year. It wasn't because of a fight, it was because some assclown vandalized the school over a weekend by letting loose a firehose on the 3rd floor. I saw very few fights in my time at Northview Heights, and the fights that I did see weren't of the major variety. A little grappling, and cooler heads prevail and/or staff come in to break it up.

Marijuana grow operations are strong in the Greater Toronto Area. Many of these grow-ops are run by Vietnamese people, typically of the younger Northern (Hải Pḥng; Hai Phong if some of you don't have the proper language set installed) variety. Recent arrivals to the country. Being Vietnamese myself, I know of many things that go on. "Planting grass" is a rough translation of the act. Flip open our weekly newspaper and you see many ads for TUBS and several dozen KILOGRAMS of fertilizer and associated stuff for larger-scale hydraponics. I wonder that that'* for... a home garden? I know how these guys work. It'* very complicated, and they're continually improving themselves. It'* a big underground, believe me.

Gun violence is on the rise in this town - some of it is to be expected. But Toronto'* most recent murder took place not too far from my place. A man was gunned down in front of his family-run used car dealership - over an argument about a repossessed used/leased car. I call this place home...

Yeah thats pretty crappy. People get shot/assaulted in the area right around my school. I hear gun shots and sirens every once in a while when I'm in class too. And the two *** hats that can really do something about it (the major & police commissioner) aren't doing much.

That recent shooting at the used car lot was just brazen, theres no other term for it. It was over a non accepted lease agreement. Thing is here, the cops have names (duh...signed LEASE agreement)

Another was a shooting of an apparent gang member attending a funeral for another gang member friend who was gunned down a week earlier. As much as I have a hate for gang violence, as long as they shoot each other, I could care less. But its when they start shooting kids (that Cadougan kid...I forget his first name..he was 6? and is recovered was shot when a stray bullet hit him) then I start having problems. This recent act of violence against a guy at a car lot is just so wrong on so many levels.

I still blame guns for this crime, as much as I blame the people....I blame the tools used to commit such senseless acts.

I may sound wicked Liberal left here, but damn, maybe controlled legalization of weed MIGHT..just might curb some gang economics. maybe. :?

The REAL solution is social programs, improved community housing and involvment, incentives to furthur education. Make gang activity less attractive...and the minority elite class (ie celebs) shouldnt promote "cool" gang lifestyle...and yes, I'm pointed at rap and the hip hop lifestyle.

Violence will never go away, ballsy kids with weapons will never go away, but we need to reduce the activity.

The legalization of pot has been discussed in many political circles. Especially in Oregon. But it'* not really Marijuana that the drug problem stems from (no pun intended).

Other illegal drugs are the bigger problems than pot in our neck of the woods (crack cocaine and methamphetamines are big here, if you can call drugs a big problem in a town of 40,000 people).

As far as weapons are concerned, every state (32 now I think) that have passed a concealed weapons permit law (obviously for law-abiding citizens that pass a training/certification course or are military vets) has seen an immediate decrease in violent crime rates of at least 5%, and as much as 10%. Why? Punk criminals don't want to face the possibility of an armed citizen willing to defend him/herself.

Austrailia finally banned all firearms, and regrets it to this day. Only the criminals are armed now. We have to face the fact that firearms are around us, and if they're made illegal, all of us law-abiding citizens will be forced to turn them in.

Guess who won't?

Drugs and firearms will always be linked in society. If firearms are magically 'disappeared', it'll be drugs and baseball bats.