Michael Coren concludes that “[gun violence is] partly but not completely about race and it's partly but not completely about poverty. It's about those who are willing to join society and those who are not.” I doubt that anyone, even the liberals that he is always ranting against, would disagree with him. There are no simple answers, but the fact remains that dealing with the part of gun crime that is about race and poverty is important. Coren often talks about balance but then he is content to give bipolar ultimatums by dividing people between “those who are willing to join society and those who are not.” We must ask the question, what kind of society are we inviting people to join? Maybe the ultimatum should be centered around creating a society that we can all participate in equally.
Toronto's response to gun violence needs to be multi-faceted and multi-valent in ways in which both rights and responsibilities are balanced. But it is not helpful to imagine that change and transformation are a requisite only for troubled communities. Citing references to the good old days when people picked themselves up by the boot straps and confronted racism by leading exemplary lives is not helpful. For both good and ill, we live in a different world, in which the highest of our aspirations should be not only to overcome racism and poverty but also to eradicate it. I think that is the answer that Christians need to live into. Playing the blame game will get us nowhere.
