Ecole Polytechnique, je me souviens

I would like to offer my condolences to any of the survivors or people who lost loved ones in this massacre. It was a terrible tragedy, and I feel sympathy for any person who was hurt by it, physically or spiritually. In my opinion it is morally reprehensible to use the anniversary of this event to score political points. Enter Heather Mallick, whose material is back up and running at the CBC, used the anniversary to take a shot at the government over the long gun registry. A registry that would not have prevented that tragedy. There have been school shootings with registered guns also.

When Remembrance Day comes each year, far left bloggers take the opportunity to decry the commemorative moment as war mongerers worshiping at the altar of warfare. Try to take a moment to reflect on the millions of lives lost to war over the years, and you are labelled as "warshipping." And yet there is no shame on the left to take a terrible tragedy and have Mallick lead the clones at the Liblogs out of their clown car and into collectively mourning the loss of life while trying to make a political impact. It was a terrible incident and we should all be able to reflect on it and how to prevent, but the long gun registry wasn't a preventative measure.

The majority of guns used in violent crimes by criminals are illicitly acquired illegal weapons. The majority of incidents of gun violence in Canada comes in the form of gang activity. You can't force gangsters to register their guns, and where there is demand, supply always finds a way. Whatever goal the long gun registry was intended to accomplish, it didn't work. It was not a preventative tool. I will cede that perhaps it could have assisted in criminal investigations, but to that I ask what percentage of solved gun crimes were only possible with the gun registry? If that number is sufficiently high, then I would support the continued existence of a registry, albeit in a diminished capacity.

I choose to put my faith into the Canadian RCMP. I support the hiring of more police, I support the purchasing of new equipment for the police, I support the use of guns by police, I support the use of tasers by the police, I would even support the use of ninja throwing stars by the police if they asked for it. You can't stop the nuts from going bananas and acquiring a weapon, but you can take steps to ensure that we have as many RCMP officers on the ground as quickly as possible in any such crisis. That's how we diminish the loss of life in these terrible tragedies.