Mammoliti renews call for gun amnesty after recent shootings
Posted October 16, 2017 6:20 am.
Last Updated October 16, 2017 6:35 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Amid another weekend of gun violence, one city councillor is renewing his call for a gun amnesty/buyback program.
Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti said a campaign that ran in 2000 took 2,000 firearms off the street in just two weeks at a cost of $100,000.
“I smell another ‘year of the gun’. Before we get to a point that’s unmanageable, we should start talking about how we’re going to deal with it,” Mammoliti said in a statement.
“I think a gun amnesty/buyback program is a good thing for us to talk about.”
Mammoliti wants the city to offer an added incentive to get people to surrender their weapons – either $100 a gun, or partner with a corporate sponsor, like a grocery chain, to offer $200 gift cards.
Gun amnesty programs give citizens a legal route to properly dispose of unwanted firearms, without the threat of prosecution.
On Friday night, a 24-year-old man sustained life-threatening injuries in a shooting near Flemington and Allen roads. The victim was found with multiple gunshot wounds. Around the same time, the sound of gunshots was reported coming from the Lawrence Avenue and Dufferin Street. Police confirm those reports are related to the Flemington Road shooting.
The following night, marijuana dispensary manager James Clayton Holland, 43, became the city’s 50th murder victim this year. He was shot near Finch Avenue West and Weston Road.
Last week, several shots were fired at the family of Zakariye Ali, 16, who was killed in a triple shooting in Etobicoke on Oct. 8. No injuries were reported.
