Dawson College - In the aftermath

By Paul F. Coppin

The horror of the events at Dawson College in Montreal create an incalculable shock to the psyche of Canadians, a somewhat smug society that believes, on balance, "these things don't happen here". But they do. They did in Montreal in 1989, at Ecole Polytechnique, they did in Taber, Alberta.

With typical predictability, both sides of the gun control debate felt obliged to marshall their troops to deal with the expected onslaught that was sure to follow. And follow it did. The MSM blasted the landscape with speculation, half-truths, and outright lies. Editorialists continued to demonstrate their poor to non-existent knowledge of both firearms and Canada's present firearms laws.

The gun control crowd smelled blood and once again trotted out their manufactured and manipulated statistics, innuendo about gun owners, and fanciful schemes to save the world. Firearms owners were once again dragged into a debate that did not and does not, have anything to do with them. The gun control crowd stood atop the tragic events and defended the registry, even though not a single official could find any way the registry could have, and did not, prevent this event. Family members involved were understandably upset and vocal.

Because this was Montreal, again, Quebec, again, firearms owners across the country felt the weight of personal guilt being heaped upon their shoulders by the now professional victims of Ecole Polytechnique and their sycophants. Liberal Premier Charest, in the throes of a collapsing government, promised to maximize his advantage of the tragedy by going to Ottawa to pound on Stephen Harper to keep the useless long gun registry, because, well, because he needs the votes in Quebec to survive. Everybody admits the registry could not, did not, save the children. But the registry was never created to save children. It was created to save politicians.

The tragedy at Dawson College is not about guns. It is not about gun control. The tragedy of Dawson College is about disaffected youth, sociopathology and mental illness. Its about unpredictability in the human condition, which we all know lies out there amongst us.

Once again, the practice of insisting firearms owners carry the guilt, by demanding ever more ineffectual legislation, as before, is immoral. The fault lies not with them or their tools. If blame has to be distributed, there are a myriad other social targets to look to, but firearms owners are not among them.