Two men are dead and at least four others wounded after gunmen opened fire on a crowded Toronto street festival Saturday night — the predictable toll of governance that disarms the law-abiding while doing nothing to stop armed criminals.
The Salsa on St Clair festival, an annual celebration of Latin American culture drawing an estimated 13,000 people to midtown Toronto, became a killing zone around 8:12 p.m. when two individuals exchanged gunfire among the crowds, according to Deputy Police Chief Frank Barredo. The shooters "indiscriminately put vast numbers of people in danger," Barredo said. Two firearms were recovered. No suspects are in custody.
Witness Valerie Rodriguez was sitting near a restaurant when people began screaming. "A bunch of people told us to lay down onto the floor," she said. "We got scared because we didn't know exactly what was happening." Festival vendor Patsy Gutierrez saw "a huge wave" of people fleeing. "Everybody started getting frantic and then we stopped serving," she said. "I don't think it should be something that's happening at these types of events."
It shouldn't be. But this is what happens when politicians substitute prayers for policy. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow — a progressive who has championed the same soft-on-crime approach American Democrats are pushing coast to coast — said she was "deeply disturbed and angry." Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was "horrified." Ontario Premier Doug Ford at least demanded the person responsible "must be caught, brought to justice and spend the rest of their life behind bars."
The outlet reports diverged on the wounded count: the Guardian and BBC reported four injured beyond the two dead, while AP and Reuters counted five — a discrepancy authorities have not yet clarified. Three separate crime scenes are being managed, according to the BBC.
Canada boasts some of the strictest gun control in the developed world. Handgun ownership is effectively banned for ordinary citizens. Yet two gunmen managed to open fire at a family festival, and hours later, both remained at large. The same political class that disarmed every law-abiding Canadian in the crowd had nothing to offer but thoughts and prayers — the very response they mock American politicians for offering after shootings stateside.
Barredo leaned on a familiar refrain: "Toronto is one of the safest cities in the world but we are 3 million people and unfortunately we are not immune." The Guardian and AP both repeated that framing — that Toronto is among North America's safest cities and mass shootings there are "relatively rare." Rare is cold comfort to the families of two dead men and the four or five others now recovering from gunshot wounds.
The lesson isn't complicated. Disarm the public, coddle the criminals, and the only people with guns at a street festival will be the ones willing to use them on strangers. American communities watching Toronto's progressive experiment should take note — because the same politicians who built that system are working to build it here.
