Four high school students in Vancouver were arrested last Wednesday for carrying a fake gun around in the city’s Yaletown neighbourhood.
It turns out they were shooting a movie, but their timing could not have been worse.
The teens were apprehended the day after a man went on a shooting spree in the exact same neighbourhood.
That man is now charged with six counts of attempted murder — one for the bike shop owner who was shot in front of a Starbucks across the street from his store, and five for the police officers at whom the man shot when they intervened and chased him to the city’s popular Science World.
All this was only days after a school shooting at an Oregon high school, which left two dead — the shooter and one victim — and a shooting at the Seattle Pacific University campus that left one dead, and of course, after the tragedy that claimed three Moncton RCMP officers just last week.
In the wake of all this highly publicized gun violence, it’s no surprise that people are extra vigilant when they see weaponry in public.
That’s why a Vancouverite phoned the city’s police department to report the students, the gun and the screams, not knowing they were fake.
It’s unlikely the students will face charges and it appears this is a case of extreme thoughtlessness, but what an act of thoughtlessness.
From the White House, speaking in an online event sponsored by Tumblr, U.S. President Barack Obama said congress should be ashamed of their inaction on gun control laws in the wake of all these mass shootings, and that’s a lesson we in Canada are learning as well.
The argument against gun control frequently points out the many people who use guns responsibly or as tools — not as murder weapons.
The thing is, I don’t think responsible hunters are opposed to laws that might prevent guns from getting in the hands of people who have more questionable motives.
In Canada, these shootings have re-ignited the long gun registry debate, which the federal government ended by passing its Ending the Long-Gun Registry Act in 2012.
Obviously, this doesn’t change the registration requirements for non-restricted firearms, and all those who own firearms must still have a licence to do so.
But it’s possible that the act gives the impression that Canada is planning to lighten its gun controls at a crucial time when more of these controls may be wiser.
The vast majority of firearm owners do not use them to kill people, but that does not answer the question at hand: how do we keep guns from the hands of those who might?
Many lobby groups will say tougher gun laws aren’t the answer, and they’re partially right; it’s not the full answer. There are so, so many issues in American and Canadian societies surrounding these mass shootings that the “solution” has to be a massively widespread, multi-industry collaborative effort that includes changing the perception that the “right” to bear arms is more like a privilege.
