Yes, Toronto is still a safe city in comparison to others of similar or larger size but the direction it is heading in still saddens me. I recall from my youth that I only needed the fingers on both hands to count the yearly tally of murders in Toronto. The difference then was that the murders were the result of robberies gone awry or personal crimes of passion. These days more and more innocent bystanders are being caught in the midst of indiscriminate gang warfare.
What scares me more than gun toting idiots are intellectually challenged politicians. With the recent spate of senseless murders in Toronto, citizens were crying out for action. Leave it to Toronto’s socialist mayor to jump into action with a call to ban handguns. For all intents and purposes, private handguns in Canada were already banned in the 1930s. I doubt that any further declaration of a ban would have thugs and gang members running to the local police precinct to turn in their illegally smuggled weapons.
Years ago, before Jack Layton became the leader of Canada's federal socialist party (NDP), he sat as a Toronto City councillor. On hearing that the American nuclear capable warship
USS Oliver Hazard Perry intended to dock on the Toronto waterfront, he declared Toronto a “Nuclear Free Zone” in spite of the ship not carrying any nuclear weapons on that voyage. Perhaps banning handguns and making Toronto a “Gun Free Zone” will be just as effective. To my knowledge, there haven’t been any nuclear detonations in Toronto since councillor Layton's declaration.
All things considered, I agree with Charlene and feel that Toronto is a reasonably safe city. Like any large city, you can find trouble if you look for it. Only rarely does it find you. I still like to think of it as “Toronto The Good”…
Yuri