I've seen quite a few of these mass shootings over the years, unfortunately they all become so politically polarized that the victims and their families soon become forgotten.The worst single incident happened here in the 90's at quebec politechnique university when a man who I refuse to name shot and killed 14 women.He was obviously insane and had a pathological hatred for women. The Canadian long gun registry was implemented because of the actions of a deranged lone lunatic.As most of you may already know, the long gun registry was dropped this year because we found out after spending billions of dollars and alienating and marginalizing millions of law-abiding Canadians it didn't work.
I have lost friends to acts of violence(knives,beatings,1 shooting and far to many were killed by drunk drivers which I consider to be an act of violence) I am in no way comparing the grief I felt at losing them to the grief that the parents of the children must be dealing with at this time.I am the father of two daughters and the thought of what those people are now living through breaks my heart and words cannot convey my sympathy for them all.
The disturbing thing in all of these incidents is that there are usually many people involved with the shooter who knew the level of mental illness or in some cases the amount of hatred that the shooters were capable of.Whenever I hear the media crying for some one to blame I have one simple answer, all of us, not just the firearms community or the anti gun groups but every single one of us. I can garauntee that right now in connetticut there are people asking themselves why they didn't say anything or do something to stop what happened.I'm sure its the same in Dunblane, Columbine,Quebec Poli and countless other acts of mindless and insane violence.
The point I'm trying to make is, the canadian government passed laws to prevent people who either were mentally incapable of controlling their actions or people so fing evil they cared nothing for the lives of their victims, let alone whether they had broken any laws.Needless to say the law failed.I think a lot more lives would be saved if all of us just took a little more interest in the people around us, on two occasions I stepped in with co-workers who seemed deeply troubled. As it turned out , both were suicidal and had access to firearms.After getting a little help both are happy productive people with growing families. I'm not special, anyone can do the same, on the other side of the coin if I'd said nothing and one of the individuals had gone on to commit an act of violence I believe that I would have been just as responsible as the individual who pulled the trigger.
In short, passing laws that will be ignored or blaming inannimate objects for the acts of individuals is not only foolish, its dangerous.All we have in this world is each other, if you want to make the world a better place try giving a sh#t for that guy you dont really know that well, you might be surprised.
Alberta Boy