We can’t begin to fathom the grief suffered by Newtown, CT parents who lost their children to a madman just before Christmas. We can only envision our own sons and daughters cowering in a corner before being shot with an assault rifle.
What drove Adam Lanza to force his way into Sandy Hook Elementary and kill all those innocent children? How did he get his hands on such a nasty weapon?
We almost forgot – he lived in a country where guns of all shapes and sizes can be purchased almost as easily as a television set.
Thankfully, Canada has much stiffer gun laws and restrictions on what firearms you can buy or possess.
But could this Newtown tragedy occur in Canada? It already has – the 1989 massacre of 14 women at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, where Marc Lepine used a Ruger Mini-14 rifle. And in 2006, Kimveer Gill walked into a college (again in Montreal) and injured more than a dozen students and killed one with a Beretta CX4 Storm. Both of these semi-automatic weapons are still permitted in Canada to the chagrin of people who argue that guns kill people (not those who pull the trigger).
While we won’t get into that debate, we will suggest that weapons such as assault rifles should only be reserved for military purposes. Why does a civilian need a weapon that can discharge bullets as fast as you can pull the trigger . . . to hunt four-legged terrorists with antlers?
True, banning assault rifles won’t prevent future massacres at schools or workplaces, but it should lessen the devastating efffets that such weapons leave behind, compared to a single bolt action rifle that takes time to load.
Military type assault rifles have no place in civilian society. Period. Hunting rifles, shotguns and handguns for target practice serve their purpose as responsibly demonstrated by sports clubs such as Southern Okanagan Sportsmen’s Association. You won’t find a more dedicated group of members anywhere who teach gun safety like it’s a religion.
It’s comforting to know that our schools have emergency plans in place to deal with such crises like the Newtown shooting. But if you think about it, there’s nothing to stop anyone from entering a school and creating the type of mayhem seen in Connecticut or Columbine High in 1999. We can only pray that people contemplating these horrific acts get the help they need before taking innocent lives.