In Memoriam

[RetiredAt63]

http://globalnews.ca/news/1711323/remembering-the-women-who-died-at-ecole-polytechnique/

I am not sure we have made much social progress in the last 25 years.  Our PM has dismantled the gun laws that were brought in - why do civilians need assault rifles?  It would have been ironic if Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who benefited from this, had made it past security on the Hill.  PM Harper was within reach if he had.

Are our daughters any safer?  My DD was 4 months old when I was watching all this on TV.  Not the world I wanted her to grow up in.

If you wish to comment, please keep it civil, and please do not get into a Canada/US fight about gun control laws.  We did all that last June.

[deborah]

In Australia we had the Port Arthur massacre. After it, much stricter gun laws were put in place. A couple of years ago, they went through the records to see if the laws had made any differences to the number of gun related deaths. There was a huge difference, the number of victims of firearm-perpetrated homicide (i.e. murder and manslaughter) has declined by half between 1989–90 and 2009–10 from 24 to 12 percent.

So, yes your daughters probably are safer, if your changes were anything like the ones in Australia.

[lizzzi]

What a sad story. To answer your question, I don't think any of us are any safer. The world is just as vicious now as it ever was back in medieval days. if killers want to kill, they'll use whatever comes to hand.

[RetiredAt63]

@deborah
There were some issues with the strict gun control laws for farmers and hunters, and our present party in power used that as part of their campaign platforms.  As soon as they had a majority government they dismantled the legislation - sort of a throw the baby out with the bath water situation.  I am sure there is data on the results of both the gun control legislation and its repeal, but I haven't gone looking.
It is always difficult to know how much effect something like this has, especially as we live next door to the U.S., which has a very different take on guns, and attitudes do cross borders.  But I still do not see why any civilian needs an automatic or semi-automatic rifle.  And I live in an area where farmers do have to cope with coyotes.
The other aspect of the story is the misogyny, and that seems to be flourishing - witness all the online sexual abuses, Jian Ghomeshi, etc.

[deborah]

I'm not sure about the figures being available. The outcome of the review that was done here surprised even the people doing the report.

Yes, misogyny is flourishing. We have a Prime Minister who has been called a misogynist (famously in a speech by his predecessor that went viral on the internet last year), and who thought nothing of having a cabinet with only one female member. As we talk, she is going to the Peru talks, and even though she is the 2IC, he sent a male minister with her to oversee her!

[RetiredAt63]

@Deborah
A newspaper article said 300/year fewer murders - it will be interesting (the way a bad car accident is interesting) to see what the numbers are in a few years.  Quebec (the Province this happened in) has a case before the Supreme Court to not have the gun registry information for Quebec residents deleted, Quebec wants to run a Provincial registry starting with that data.  All the data for the rest of Canada has been deleted.  Not only did the present government kill the gun registry, they have a bill in process now that will relax requirements for purchase and restrictions on semi-automatics. 

This is the same government whose PM does not think that 1200 missing and murdered aboriginal women is a social issue. 

And to show their general attitude:
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/public-sector-union-to-take-muzzled-science-issue-to-bargaining-table/article21908212/?service=mobile&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=Referrer:+Social+Network+/+Media&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links

[deborah]

What was really interesting about the study they did in Australia was that it wasn't murders that were the main reduction - it was suicide and accidental death (man takes rifle with him as he goes under a barbed wire fence and accidentally kills himself with rifle in the process...). It was the huge reduction in those sorts of things that really bumped up the figures. A gun allows for immediate loss of life, so having them less readily available has made suicides less likely to actually happen - a couple of minutes thought makes life more bearable.

[RetiredAt63]

I can believe it - I haven't seen the studies for Canada but I saw a U.S. study where a depressingly large % of gun deaths were suicides and accidents.

Our gun control was aimed more at semi-automatic and automatic rifles.  Hunting rifles (i.e. maybe 2 shots) have never been a big issue, and hand-guns for personal use are basically banned and always have been.  Hand guns are certainly in the possession of civilians, but they are purchased illegally.

Most of the older Canadian incidents I can think of off-hand involved either semi-automatic rifles (i.e. Ecole Polytechnique) or hand-guns (Concordia).  Recently, the gun used in the shootings on Parliament Hill held 8 bullets but was not automatic or semi automatic and experts think that helped keep the casualties down.

Right now the things happening here seem to be more political, but people who are not thinking straight can pick any target group without much rational thought.