Tragedy at Virginia Tech: Media Statement From Gun Control Canada

We at Gun Control Canada.org stand with all Canadians in our horror and shock at the events that have unfolded this morning at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. This is a massive and unfortunate tragedy, and our sympathy and concerns go out to all of the direct and related victims of this terrible event.

While the details are yet to be understood, we know that once again Canada and the US will embroil themselves in the debate over gun control. But gun control is not the issue in extreme tragedies such as these, and the history of gun control has never been able to define a legislative agenda concerning firearms that could ensure such tragedies don’t occur.

Tragedies such as this one, and the ones to which it has been already compared: Columbine, Texas, Dawson College, Oklahoma City (the latter being a bombing), are events shaped by a deranged mind, and this is where the answers must surely lie. In most of these involving young adults and children, the events are mostly about young adults killing peers.

The focus in the future needs to concentrate on how these young individuals come to view the murder of their colleagues as so acceptable, and how we as a society have contributed to this. There have always been firearms in modern society, but the use of them by young adults and teenagers to commit large scale horrific acts is a recent phenomenon. Rather than diluting our resources on the endless debate about the tools, its time to focus on the souls of those who would use them against their fellows.