Well, in response, I can simply suggest to look at it in a generational context. Don't look at it simply in one year or two years. Quite frankly, a 100% increase in some areas of violent or dangerous crime is simply not acceptable, whether it's in a generation or 10 years.
What concerns us, and what specifically drives these bills, for example, is the percentage of handgun homicides that we are now seeing, the increase of about 25% since the late 1990s. And there are others.
I would invite you to ask the chiefs of police to come and talk about the gang activity that is going on in your city. I've received briefings about the sophistication of gangs and how gangs are now controlling the streets. And they're not simply isolated pockets of street gangs, but they work together now with the more mature gangs, if I can use that word, in order to advance criminal enterprises.
So what these bills do, and specifically the one on mandatory minimum penalties, is focus on gun crime and ensure that those gang- and gun-related issues are dealt with.
Mayor Giuliani has an impressive track record. He just recently spoke to an audience in Winnipeg, and I got reports back from that. Essentially, he would agree with you, I think, that you need to have all of these preventative programs in place. They're very important. But what he also made clear is that if you don't deal with the crime on the street, the money spent on social programs simply will not work. You need to deal in a very forceful way with crime on the streets. And his track record is one to be envied. The murder rate now in New York City is lower than it was in 1963. In the mid-1990s, 2,200 people a year were being murdered in New York City. Now the number is somewhere around 550. Now, 550 people is a lot of people, but when we look at the measures he took with respect to being firm with crime, 1,500 more people are living in a year than before.
To me, when you talk about a balanced approach, what could be more balanced than saving 1,500 lives? To me, that is important.
When I talk to an aboriginal man or woman in the north end of Winnipeg, where the streets are ravaged by gangs and owned by gangs.... What is balanced about being frightened to come out, not just at night but in the evenings and during the day? What's balanced about that? The gunmen and the drug dealers need to be off the streets. And I can tell you, the social programs, the economic programs, and the community programs will work in that case.