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On July 22, 2021, three years will have passed since a young girl and a teenage woman were murdered, thirteen others were shot, and countless others were terrorized in a seemingly random act of violence on the Danforth. The Toronto Police report that was issued about that night, suggests that about 10 minutes elapsed from the time that the first shots were fired at Alexander the Great Parkette at Logan, until the murderer took his own life on the sidewalk at Danforth and Bowden, with a stolen Smith & Wesson MP40.
The situation that night was total chaos. It took some of us days and weeks to learn of the extent of the menace. This tragedy was, and remains, a total shock to our families, and as we have come to know, to many in the Danforth Community, in Toronto, and across the country. This is a grim story to recount every July 22. But one reason to do so is that talking about this horrific event helps to deal with it. We have learned that you do not forget. You try and accept that it happened, and you try your best to live with it. Acknowledging the shock and finding others who feel the same loss and hurt helps a bit. But the loss and its impact on your mental well-being, does not go away. It is a tragedy in this City that often victims are left on their own. They are not supported as we were. This is an issue to which we must pay more attention across Toronto – the supports for those who are left to pick up the pieces. The cost of gun violence is understated, as we have come to learn, and we must as friends and neighbors and fellow citizens of the City, help survivors and their families whenever gun violence occurs.
In the intervening time, some of the families affected by the July 22 event, created a grassroots group called Danforth Families for Safe Communities (DFSC). From the facts of our case, we believe that our tragedy was caused, in part, by-laws that allowed for the wide and growing proliferation of handguns in Canada since the mid 2010’s. Yes, the US border and smuggling of weapons is part of the problem. But it was a handgun imported legally that was used that night. It was available for sale, and then stolen and used by the murderer that night. We must reduce the risk of death posed to the broader community by the existence of these inexpensive, portable, concealable, and deadly weapons.
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