It's never a great morning when I wake up and see there's been a mass public shooting anywhere in the world. I don't like seeing them, and not just because they bring up some rather painful memories.
But when it happens in an anti-gun country, I have to take a moment and think about the laws that are in place in that country as well, because these are all things that someone here either has demanded as a way to stop mass shootings, or will if they get half a chance.
For example, Bondi Beach.
Yet on Wednesday, we got another example when we found out about the shooting in Canada that killed nine innocent people.
Canada has a lot of gun control on the books right now, so let's take a look at the laws that are in place that completely and totally failed.
Canada’s strict gun laws include a ban on assault-style firearms and a national freeze on the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns.
The Canadian government has banned more than 2,500 makes and models of assault-style firearms in recent years.
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an immediate ban of more than 1,500 models on May 1, 2020, two weeks after a gunman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia. The ban included two weapons used by that gunman as well as the AR-15 and other weapons that have been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States. "Canadians need more than thoughts and prayers," he said at the time.
...The national freeze on the sale and purchase of handguns took effect in October 2022. It does not apply to those who already were authorized to carry handguns and those involved in shooting sports covered by the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee.
Additionally, Canada has a licensing requirement for all gun owners that includes "enhanced" background checks, as well as character witnesses who are interviewed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
And yes, the killer reportedly had a gun license at one time, and clearly still had some degree of access to guns, despite a long history of mental illness long before he decided he was trans. None of those managed to stop his access to guns despite all of the laws on the books that we're told prevent mass murders in the Great White North.
So what gives?
Maybe--and just hear me out here, because I'm going to get a little radical--the problem isn't access to guns, but that some people are broken internally enough that they should be getting treatment. Maybe they should be dealt with as individuals, including determining whether they should be walking around, rather than treating every gun owner as a potential mass killer.
Because 2026 isn't even two full months old yet, and we already have two prime examples of how gun control doesn't prevent mass killings.
Yes, they're rarer in Canada and Australia than in the United States, but they were rarer before the gun control laws were put in place, too. They don't seem to do anything to make things better.
They just put the blame on law-abiding folks who have done nothing wrong.
And make no mistake, just like in Australia, I expect the Canadian government to double down.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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