#7 Vbeacher: "CDN_PATRIOT" said
This is less about guns than it is a lawlessness problem. Police have been de-policing for years now, with no end in sight. The days of constant police patrols (crusiers or foot) are long over. Add to the fact that the current Mayor of Toronto and it's police chief are both wimps on an epic scale, and police funding never seems to be increased properly, and voila..
A big part of the problem is we've let policing salaries get out of hand. I respect the job police do, but do we really need to pay our cops more than anyone else in the world? Because if a cop's salary is $100,000 (not counting overtime and benefits) it's hard to afford a lot of them. They don't make this much in the US, UK or France.
Canada has 185 cops per 100k population. The US has 284.
That's one hell of a difference. Now some of you might be tempted to say "well, the US is a crazy place with lots of guns and violent crime so they need that many"
Well... Austria has 314, Belgium 412. Australia is only 202 (still more than us) but Germany has 296 and France 340, England 302, Scotland 324.
That number for Canada again - 185.