The Toronto Star reports today that the firearms advisory committee, has appointed virtually only gun enthusiasts, and is operating essentially in secret.
Its dozen members include a man who argued that more guns in the hands of students would have helped in the recent Virginia Tech massacre, in which 32 people were killed, and another shooting aficionado who described a weapon used in last September’s Dawson College killings in Montreal as “fun.”
More inspiring words
“If even 1 per cent of the students and staff at Virginia Tech had been allowed to exercise their right to self defence, then this tragedy would have been stopped in its very beginning and dozens of lives would have been saved,” Dr. Mike Ackermann, a Nova Scotia physician, wrote in a letter to the Ottawa Sun in April. “There are never any mass killings at shooting ranges; only at schools and other so-called `gun-free zones.'”
Gary Mauser, a Simon Fraser University professor renowned for his work opposing gun laws, wrote an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun in February: “Firearm laws divert scarce resources from alternative approaches that might actually improve public safety.”
Never one to accept anything without research I looked up the “safety stats”, surely the more heavily armed Americans must have a society virtually free from violence.
Um…maybe not
Gun violence in our communities
Canada-US Comparaison
Oh well at least we can all rest easier knowing Doris Day is on the case.
You know what’s really depressing about this? Suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst teens and over half of them use handguns.
I used to have Canadian StatsCan numbers for this but ever since they *ahem* revamped their site I can no longer find it so here’s Harvard’s.
OK, I’m going home to write a post on this now. Thanks, Debra.