Canadian vs. American responses to mass shootings

By Eric George Tauber

Eric George Tauber

SAN DIEGO —  Yesterday, April 19, 2020, in Portapique, Nova Scotia, a gunman on a shooting rampage killed at least 16 people including one Mountie. The gunman was able to flee and lead the police on a 55-mile chase because he was dressed as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and driving a car made to look like one of their vehicles. Thankfully, he was later cornered at a gas station and taken out by the RCMP. Nova Scotia’s Premier, Stephen McNeil called it “one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province’s history.”

The horrific shooting spree is the worst in Canada since the “Montreal Massacre” of 1989. Then, a lone gunman, blaming the failings of his own life on the scourge of Feminism, walked into École Polytechnique and took the lives of fourteen women, injuring ten others, before shooting himself.

A survivor of the Montreal Massacre, Heidi Rathjen turned her trauma into a call to action. Her petition for greater gun control garnered 560,000 signatures, the most of any petition in Canada’s history at the time. Rathjen and her supporters lobbied Parliament for the passage of Bill C-68, requiring screening for firearms applicants, training for firearms owners and a centralized database linking all firearms to their owners. It was passed in 1995.

This was the Canadian response to one mass shooting. I couldn’t help comparing this story to a similar one in the American news:

US has first March without school shooting in 18 years (www.independent.co.uk)

So March of 2020 was the first month of March NOT to have a school shooting somewhere in the USA since 2002. And since all schools are currently closed, it seems safe to assume that were it not for the current pandemic, we probably would have had yet another school shooting.

And what has been the repeated response of the United States Congress to mass shootings after…

Columbine

Virginia Tech

Santana High School

Granite Hills High School

Nickel Mines

Sandy Hook Elementary

Stoneman-Douglas High School

…etc …etc …etc?

“Thoughts and prayers.”

No action. No universal background checks. No national database of gun owners. No mandatory training. No bans on high-capacity magazines. Nothing.

And What does God think of these “thoughts and prayers” being offered by our representatives in Congress? Presuming to know the mind of the Almighty is a tricky business. And yet there is a passage in our Scriptures that give us a pretty strong indication.

“When you lift your hands in prayer, I will not look at you. No matter how much you pray, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and learn to do right. See that justice is done….” (Isaiah 1:15-17, GNT)

Let’s put that on our bumper stickers instead of inane phrases like “Pro-God. Pro-Gun.”

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Eric George Tauber is a freelance writer based in San Diego.  He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com