Michael's Essay: Gun culture after the Newtown school shooting
This coming December 14, it will be one year since the massacre of the children in Newtown, Connecticut.Groups of American gun owners will commemorate the grim date with public demonstrations against gun control....
This coming December 14, it will be one year since the massacre of the children in Newtown, Connecticut.
Groups of American gun owners will commemorate the grim date with public demonstrations against gun control.No one can forget that crisp December morning.
At around 9:30 on that day, a heavily armed lunatic named Adam Peter Lanza walked into the school and murdered 20 first graders and six adults.
Earlier, he had killed his mother.
Across the United States, from the president to the mayor of New York, there were calls for greater restrictions on firearms -- especially on assault weapons.
At the time, I wrote that the carnage of Newtown would change nothing when it came to gun control.
I was wrong. Things have gotten worse.
Several states are proposing "open carry" laws.
In Colorado, voters recalled two state senators to punish them for urging background checks on buyers of assault weapons.
And the National Rifle Association, the unindicted co-conspirators in the Newtown shootings, came out against various state laws that would require parents with small children to lock up their weapons and ammo in a strong box.
There have been a number of shootings recently where small children, some as young as five, have killed a friend or a sibling with their parents' weapons.
In some states, there are plans to instruct kindergarten teachers in how to handle firearms.
In Canada we do not have a gun culture. We have a different view of gun control.
It is extremely difficult to get a permit to own a handgun and almost impossible to carry one.
Which raises an intriguing question. Why do we allow non-police officers to openly carry side arms in our crowded downtowns and shopping malls?
I'm talking about armored truck guards who pick up and deliver large sums of cash. Brink's and the like.
The other day I was in the subway watching as two security guards in Kevlar vests and carrying Glock 17 handguns eyed the crowds, while somebody emptied the token machine.
There is an unspoken scenario at work here. In the event of a robbery attempt, the guards would whip out their Glocks and exchange gunfire with the armed robbers.
The gunfight, OK corral style, could take place on a busy street in front of a bank, or in a crowded shopping centre, perhaps a suburban mall where kids hang out or near a school.
A perfect occasion for a news story containing the phrase "innocent bystander."
In 1976, a Brink's truck was held up in front of a bank in downtown Montreal by robbers wielding a World War Two anti-aircraft machine gun. Imagine the death toll if the guards had opened up.
Two things:
First the money is insured. It is not worth dying for. It is not worth anybody getting killed for.
Secondly, nobody knows what kind of gun training these guards have had. We know that cops at least have to qualify on a shooting range periodically and are taught when and when not to use their weapon.
There are more than enough troubling shootings by public police.
It seems like madness to potentially add to the toll with private security gunslingers.
Groups of American gun owners will commemorate the grim date with public demonstrations against gun control.No one can forget that crisp December morning.
At around 9:30 on that day, a heavily armed lunatic named Adam Peter Lanza walked into the school and murdered 20 first graders and six adults.
Earlier, he had killed his mother.
Across the United States, from the president to the mayor of New York, there were calls for greater restrictions on firearms -- especially on assault weapons.
At the time, I wrote that the carnage of Newtown would change nothing when it came to gun control.
I was wrong. Things have gotten worse.
Several states are proposing "open carry" laws.
In Colorado, voters recalled two state senators to punish them for urging background checks on buyers of assault weapons.
And the National Rifle Association, the unindicted co-conspirators in the Newtown shootings, came out against various state laws that would require parents with small children to lock up their weapons and ammo in a strong box.
There have been a number of shootings recently where small children, some as young as five, have killed a friend or a sibling with their parents' weapons.
In some states, there are plans to instruct kindergarten teachers in how to handle firearms.
In Canada we do not have a gun culture. We have a different view of gun control.
It is extremely difficult to get a permit to own a handgun and almost impossible to carry one.
Which raises an intriguing question. Why do we allow non-police officers to openly carry side arms in our crowded downtowns and shopping malls?
I'm talking about armored truck guards who pick up and deliver large sums of cash. Brink's and the like.
The other day I was in the subway watching as two security guards in Kevlar vests and carrying Glock 17 handguns eyed the crowds, while somebody emptied the token machine.
There is an unspoken scenario at work here. In the event of a robbery attempt, the guards would whip out their Glocks and exchange gunfire with the armed robbers.
The gunfight, OK corral style, could take place on a busy street in front of a bank, or in a crowded shopping centre, perhaps a suburban mall where kids hang out or near a school.
A perfect occasion for a news story containing the phrase "innocent bystander."
In 1976, a Brink's truck was held up in front of a bank in downtown Montreal by robbers wielding a World War Two anti-aircraft machine gun. Imagine the death toll if the guards had opened up.
Two things:
First the money is insured. It is not worth dying for. It is not worth anybody getting killed for.
Secondly, nobody knows what kind of gun training these guards have had. We know that cops at least have to qualify on a shooting range periodically and are taught when and when not to use their weapon.
There are more than enough troubling shootings by public police.
It seems like madness to potentially add to the toll with private security gunslingers.