Warmington writes: "We are on a record setting for shootings and homicides."
This isn't even remotely true. Let me tweet out some graphs, here.
torontosun.com/news/local-new…
This isn't even remotely true. Let me tweet out some graphs, here.
torontosun.com/news/local-new…
Per the Toronto Police Service, here are the homicide statistics. On the left is the Year-to-Date homicides for the past several years (meaning each year includes only January-July) and on the right is the year-end statistics, going back a bit further. 
Here are the same statistics for shootings. Left is YTD, right is year-end.
There's no doubt that shootings and homicides are on the rise in Toronto — inflated, unfortunately, by two mass-casualty incidents and a spike in gang-related violence. But it's mirroring a similar trend, country-wide. (StatsCan)
And for another reference point, here's the homicide rate (meaning it's adjusted for population.) This only goes to 2016, but nevertheless makes it pretty clear that publishing a column entitled "Toronto the safe? Not anymore" is an incredibly stupid take.
Toronto's murder rate is lower than virtually every American city. It is slightly higher than London (at 1.2/100,000) but is basically on par with plenty of major cities worldwide. Could it be lower? Yes. And it can probably be lowered by tackling the flow of handguns.
For a columnist to play up fearmongering to that degree, then to pooh-pooh the idea of talking about gun control as "prattling" is pretty extraordinary, even for Warmington.
