As we reported last Friday, this shooting in Montreal, Canada has sparked all sorts of new debate about gun laws there. While the specifics are different (this is a site about gun laws in the United States, not Canada), the general ideas, it seems, are the same. The NRA’s holy “law-abiding gun owners,” are only law-abiding up until they pull the trigger.
-Turns out the gunman in Montreal had obtained the guns he used to kill one and wound 19 completely legally.
Kimveer Gill had to jump through regulatory hoops to get the two restricted firearms and the shotgun he used to kill 18-year-old Anastasia DeSousa and wound another 20 people at Dawson College before killing himself.
But he appears to have slipped through the system without raising any suspicions.
To buy a non-restricted firearm, like the 12-gauge shotgun he was carrying, Gill would have had to pass the Canadian Firearms Safety Course, at a cost of $66, and apply for a licence to possess and acquire a firearm, costing $60 for five years.
With his application, he would have had to send a photocopy of one identification document, like a driver’s licence or a birth certificate, a passport photograph signed by a guarantor, the names of two references and, if he was in a relationship, the signature of his spouse.
He would also have had to submit personal information for the previous five years on whether he had a criminal record involving firearms or drugs, had attempted or threatened suicide, suffered from depression, alcohol, drug or substance abuse, had behavioural or emotional problems, was divorced or breaking up, had lost his job or was bankrupt.
But a “yes” answer to any of these hot-button questions would not have automatically excluded Gill, who would have had a chance to explain his situation.
It would have taken between 28 and 45 days before he got his licence for a shotgun.
What does this mean? It means the only way to be truly safe from gun violence is to get rid of the guns completely. And it means that the NRA’s excuse that gun laws only affect “law-abiding firearms owners” is no excuse at all. They claim that gun laws aren’t necessary because criminals don’t follow the law. But Gill was a law-abiding citizen, right up until he pulled the trigger. He followed all the laws Canada has in place, and this still happened.
So the laws need to be stronger. While Canada’s prime minister is campaigning off the tragedy (saying he will shut down the embattled Canadian gun registry because it didn’t prevent this), one of the victims’ family members is saying exactly that. And if gun laws are week in Canada, check out where
The brother of a Dawson College shooting victim has lashed out at Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for refusing to back down on his plan to abolish the long-gun registry.
Hassan Kadhim, whose 17-year-old brother lies in hospital with three bullet wounds to the leg, neck and head, wants Harper to think twice about his decision.
“Canada is supposed to be a peaceful country. We’re not in the United States,” Kadhim told CTV News.
“For (Harper) to talk about removing the registry for guns and maybe making it easier for people to get themselves guns… And then we see this tragedy happening. I mean, does it take something like this for our prime minister to understand? He’s sitting in Ottawa, drinking his coffee, taking it easy. And the families here are all paying the price. It’s good to be in power, but you’ve got be responsible for what you say and what you think.”
Even politicians agree– taking this incident as a lesson to shut down the gun registry and loosen gun laws is taking things exactly the wrong way.
On Friday, Conservative MPs outside of the last Tory caucus meeting of the summer commented on the situation.
Garth Turner, the outspoken Ontario MP from Halton, said it’s too soon to speculate on how to avoid future tragedies. However, Turner said the fact Gill legally owned the guns he used in the shooting indicates something needs to change.
“We’re too close to this tragedy and I don’t think any of us know exactly what the answers are, other than this is a giant wake up call,” Turner told reporters. “It’s a giant alarm bell going off, that if someone actually complies with every element of our law and we end up with this situation, the law doesn’t work.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, speaking in French, said the government will examine current laws to determine “how it is possible a person so unbalanced could have the possibility of having firearms,” and must take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
It’s clear, just going by the fact that this incident even occurred, that there is something wrong with the gun laws in Canada. Now, Canadians can choose to go either way– loosen gun laws, making it so even more criminal types like Gill can obtain firearms. Or tighten them, and work to make sure that people like Gill don’t have access to the guns they need to carry out this type of tragedy.
One more thing about this incident– for all of the gun guys nonsense about how those against gun violence seem to “use” these shootings to advance their cause, it appears the pro-gunners didn’t even wait until the dust was settled in Montreal before they started blabbing their opinions to anyone who would listen (and even some people who wouldn’t).
Almost within minutes of the news of the shooting hitting the airwaves, the Daily Herald received no less than 15 letters by e-mail from across the country. All were from those opposed to gun registration and gun control.
This is a typical excerpt: “Regarding the shootings at Dawson College — this is another example that gun control does not work. How many more lives must be lost before Canadians realize that criminals don’t obey laws?â€
At the point this letter came in, it was not even clear how many people had been shot and the circumstances of the incident were anything but clear. The death of one 18-year-old business student at the college had not been announced nor the gunman named.
It was definitely too soon to make intelligent comment on the political issues surrounding the event.
But intelligent commentary on these issues isn’t something you can get from the gun guys anyway. Intelligence just isn’t their thing– that’s why, when weak gun laws allow a shooting like this one, they try to use it as an opportunity to weaken gun laws even further.
Now, the gun guys will be quick to point out, we’re sure, that we had our own commentary about this incident last Friday, a few days after the incident took place. But in that commentary, we asked the question we’re still asking: why should we wait for a tragedy like this one to happen at all? There’s a gun problem in this country, and we need to fix it ASAP, before a shooting, after a shooting or otherwise.
