The shooting in Nova Scotia is a horrendous tragedy. No one other than a potential sociopath would try to argue otherwise. I mean, that many people being brutally murdered really can only be described in so many ways, most of which really boil down to the same thing.

Yet if you’re a gun control supporter, it can be described with one other word: Opportunity.

In the aftermath of a mass shooting, there’s pretty much a guarantee for a deeper push toward more gun control. It doesn’t matter what country, either. There will be a push and it doesn’t even matter what actually happened.

Take Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s push to ban so-called assault weapons.

On the surface, the killer used such a weapon so banning them makes sense, right? Well, not really. You see, the killer didn’t have a legally-obtained firearm. He broke the law from the get-go, which is what criminals tend to do.

Despite that, Trudeau is pushing for a ban on legal firearms, punishing law-abiding Canadians who had nothing to do with Nova Scotia. Trudeau has been pushing for a ban like this every since photos surfaced of him artificially coloring his skin so he’d look like a minority as part of a costume. It wasn’t quite blackface, but close enough.

Like Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, he pivoted to something the media would much rather report on, thus giving him some relief from the scandal.

Yet Nova Scotia gave him the opportunity to continue the push. It allowed him to take steps he might not have been able to get away with otherwise. After all, those who oppose him can be branded monsters who don’t care about the lives lost.

Nevermind that the weapon was obtained illegally, something that won’t change with a new law.

Because, you see, it’s not about addressing any potential failings that led to Nova Scotia, Parkland, Sandy Hook, Columbine, Las Vegas, or any other mass shooting. No, it’s about what anti-gunners can get away with demanding.

Trudeau is pushing for an assault weapon ban not because it will prevent another Nova Scotia, but because it’s what he can get away with.

Others are urging him to do even more, even though their proposals have even less to do with the shooting than Trudeau’s do.

Trudeau announced an immediate “ban” on about 1,500 types of military-grade “assault-style” weapons. And, as aggressive as the measure may seem, it hardly matches the prime minister’s rhetoric of “enough is enough” since it does not plug the source of many of the weapons used by criminals in Canada: the United States. Some of the firearms used by the Nova Scotia shooter, as well as at least one other mass shooting in Canada, were believed to have been obtained illegally from the US.

While the ban includes mortars, rocket launchers and artillery, it does not include handguns, which account for the majority of police-reported violent crimes in Canada.

Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, called Trudeau’s response a “weak half-measure.”

In other words, they want to seize this opportunity to ban other guns, firearms which had nothing to do with this incident.

That’s because it’s not really about the incident. It’s about seeing guns as a net evil and doing everything they can to destroy it. Canadians can take bolder steps, though, because there’s no Second Amendment to hold them back. There’s no NRA or other powerful gun rights groups to stand in their way. They push harder because there’s a better chance of getting what they want than here.

But make no mistake, or own breed of anti-gunner tries the same tricks. Why else do you think they continue to push for universal background checks regardless of how many mass shooters have passed such checks? Why do you think they push for assault weapon bans even before we find out the killers used handguns?

It’s because they don’t really care about what happened, just what they think they can get away with.