Think, don't panic
The lead story in the Toronto Star's GTA section today was Gun crimes 'out of control'. My first thought was, "When were gun crimes ever under control?"
It's a scary story that raises a lot of important points. It's all about how bad the gun situation is getting in Toronto. It calls for action before things get worse. I've notice quite a few similar stories in the last week or so.
Now I need to check some numbers before I can be sure, but I do believe this is a bit of a moral panic.
A moral panic is what happens when the public fear of a social problem blows up out of proportion to the actual threat. You can tell when such a thing happens when newspapers, politicians and interest groups start making a collective fuss over a problem that has just gotten some media attention. Sometimes a panic will start over a problem that doesn't actually exist, but just appears to.
To quote from Mary deYoung's Moral Panics: The Case of Satanic Day Care Centers, "Through the use of highly emotive claims and fear-based appeals, a moral panic tends to orchestrate cultural consent that something must be done, and quickly to deal with this alleged threat."
deYoung explains that this serves a function, stabilizing society in a time of strain. This is because the social problem usually challenges the dominant values of a society and the collective consent that spreads in the wake of a moral panic tends to reaffirm those values.
Now, none of this means that the subject of a moral panic isn't a bad thing that needs to be dealt with. Nor does it mean that a moral panic is either a good or a bad thing. It just means that we should be skeptical when newspapers, polticians and interest groups all start jumping up and down about the same thing at the same time.
Having said that, I'm going to jump up and down a little myself.
There is a very positive trend to a lot of the 'gun violence' stories I've been reading lately. They tend to point out that gun control in Canada works and that a number of firearms used in crimes are illegal firearms smuggled into Canada from the U.S.
Two relevant quotes from the above story:
"People say `Oh smuggled guns, therefore gun control doesn't work,'" said [Wendy] Cukier, a professor of justice studies at Ryerson University.
"I would turn that around and say they're smuggled guns because gun control does work, and if the United States only had decent gun control, we shouldn't have such a problem," Cukier said.
It should be noted - with a smile, mind you - that Cukier is also the president of the Coalition for Gun Control.
It's a scary story that raises a lot of important points. It's all about how bad the gun situation is getting in Toronto. It calls for action before things get worse. I've notice quite a few similar stories in the last week or so.
Now I need to check some numbers before I can be sure, but I do believe this is a bit of a moral panic.
A moral panic is what happens when the public fear of a social problem blows up out of proportion to the actual threat. You can tell when such a thing happens when newspapers, politicians and interest groups start making a collective fuss over a problem that has just gotten some media attention. Sometimes a panic will start over a problem that doesn't actually exist, but just appears to.
To quote from Mary deYoung's Moral Panics: The Case of Satanic Day Care Centers, "Through the use of highly emotive claims and fear-based appeals, a moral panic tends to orchestrate cultural consent that something must be done, and quickly to deal with this alleged threat."
deYoung explains that this serves a function, stabilizing society in a time of strain. This is because the social problem usually challenges the dominant values of a society and the collective consent that spreads in the wake of a moral panic tends to reaffirm those values.
Now, none of this means that the subject of a moral panic isn't a bad thing that needs to be dealt with. Nor does it mean that a moral panic is either a good or a bad thing. It just means that we should be skeptical when newspapers, polticians and interest groups all start jumping up and down about the same thing at the same time.
Having said that, I'm going to jump up and down a little myself.
There is a very positive trend to a lot of the 'gun violence' stories I've been reading lately. They tend to point out that gun control in Canada works and that a number of firearms used in crimes are illegal firearms smuggled into Canada from the U.S.
Two relevant quotes from the above story:
"People say `Oh smuggled guns, therefore gun control doesn't work,'" said [Wendy] Cukier, a professor of justice studies at Ryerson University.
"I would turn that around and say they're smuggled guns because gun control does work, and if the United States only had decent gun control, we shouldn't have such a problem," Cukier said.
It should be noted - with a smile, mind you - that Cukier is also the president of the Coalition for Gun Control.
