Inside the impossible gun violence epidemic
UNFORGETTABLE SAGAS, SCOOPS AND SCANDALS
from Toronto Life’slong-form archives |
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Dear reader, Gun violence is on the rise across the country, and it’s hitting the GTA hard. Toronto has seen at least 395 shootings this year, a stark increase from the 277 incidents in 2023. Last week, in an attempt to curb the violence, the Liberal government doubled down on its gun control measures, banning hundreds more firearm models and expanding its assault-weapon buyback program. While some advocates say the new measures don’t go far enough to keep our streets safe, others are calling them an overreach, claiming they wrongfully target lawful gun owners. As Toronto Life writer Luc Rinaldi put it, these opposing viewpoints make gun violence an “impossible problem” to solve. Last year, Rinaldi told the story of two senseless—and inextricably linked—deaths that cut to the core of the gun control debate: the drive-by shooting of a Scarborough teenager named Caden Francis, and the police killing of the gunsmith who crafted the weapon that killed Francis. For more great long-reads from Toronto Life, subscribe to our print edition here. |
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| —Madi Haslam, digital editor |
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This gunsmith’s pistol ended up in the hands of a murderer. The police traced the weapon, raided his workshop and shot him. Two people dead. No problems solved. Inside the impossible gun violence epidemic |
BY LUC RINALDI | APRIL 26, 2023 |
Gunsmith Rodger Kotanko lived in Port Ryerse, a two-hour drive southwest of Toronto. He ran a gun shop on the property behind his house, smithed for several of Ontario’s best sport shooters, and sold his own line of custom handguns. In November 2021, after detectives discovered that a pistol used to murder a teenager in Scarborough was registered to Kotanko, police raided his workshop. Then the raid went south—and they shot the gunsmith dead. |
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