HerKind.com

It's now more than 24 hours since Toronto's second subway shooting and all seems pretty calm. The way everyone is going about their business, you'd think nothing actually happened yesterday on one of the busiest subway platforms in Toronto. Not on the outskirts, as you might imagine... but in busy downtown Toronto.

The police, City Hall, and the TTC have all assured us that the victim, who is known to them, is co-operating, that there is a manhunt on for the suspect, and that the city and its transit are among the safest in the world. That this is a rare occurrence. That may be true by the law of averages, but I know a great many people who rely on transit to get around. Some of them are children and young adults. Toronto has had enough random shootings that have cut down innocent bystanders (one is enough right?). It's bad enough that it's happening on the streets, and buses, in bus shelters, and recently the highways (!!), but the subway is a whole other story. In the subway, you cannot easily escape, sound is distorted and basically transit users are captive to the calamity.

I should say at this juncture that I really hate the subway. It's a great invention and really the fastest way to get anywhere but back many, many years ago my first ever panic attack happened on the subway. That was probably the beginning of my not enjoying the mode of transportation. But I can sometimes feel the same way on a plane, or in a movie theatre or any kind of enclosed space with many people and limited exit. It has to do with my lifelong fear of random emergency situations.

They just don't feel all that random to me.It's probably not a good thing for my health, mind and body, that I actually expect these things to happen so when they do my first response is, "see?"

Why is it these events seem on the rise though apparently our crime rate is down. Yesterday was a particularly brazen day in Toronto, with the subway shooting, a highway 401 shooting and an afternoon armed robbery at a jewelry store in Yorkdale shopping mall. WTF?

As uncomfortable as I am on the subway, I still need it. As do over a million Torontonians a day. And none of us want our daily routine to be hijacked by gang wars and random acts of violence. We want to feel safe in the knowledge that we are as protected as possible and that our authorities have a clear handle on the problem. We want to know they are actively working to fix it.

So, what's to be done? I put the question to the Mayor David Miller via Facebook yesterday and got a reply from one of his reps that I should sign his hand gun ban petition. Well, I've done that. Do petitions work? I'm not sure. I respect and like our Mayor a great deal, but I think more needs to be done on many fronts.

The public, via the media, don't really get a clear picture of what is going on with illegal weapons. There's a whole other world happening on the streets. I certainly hope the police have a handle on it, but once again, one person dying in the line of random gun fire is not tolerable.

Some people think the root of gang related violence needs to be tackled. The lack of role models, the disenfranchised youth looking to act out against societal norms that exclude them, fatherless ness is sometimes targeted as the source, as well as poverty. Others think that tougher sentencing is the answer.

I think there needs to be a serious task force formed on this topic, one that includes some of the involved people who can tell the truth about what's going on, where the guns are coming from, how to rid the streets of them.Everyone needs to tell the truth and be transparent about it to the public.

And then a PLAN needs to be EXECUTED.

It needs to be a cooperative plan, that includes all levels of government, community leaders, police, transit authorities, and concerned citizens. And it should be helmed by someone of influence over youth - dare I say, a celebrity. Lobbying needs to be done, people need to get active and we all need to seriously work to eradicate our culture of whatever is causing these acts.

It may sound naive, and it won't be easy but clearly the mayor's heartfelt bid to ban guns is not working. I'd be very interested to hear any ideas on this topic. Please contribute your thoughts.

Chaos erupted after Osgoode shooting, Toronto Star