Oh no. Not my beloved city. Not the Dawson kids. Not again.
When I first heard the news all I could think about was my friends. I was crazy with worry. Then the pictures came in and it all looked so horribly familiar. Then shock gave way to anger. And it seemed like the pictures were turning blood red.
I remember walking my dog near the fire station on Mount Royal that cool and fatal evening, when a whole bunch of police cruisers and ambulances came screaming up Parc Avenue. They were on their way to the engineering school where a gunman with a Sturm Ruger semiautomatic had just killed 14 young women. I didn't know what had happened until later. But when I did, I never forgot the wail of those sirens. Or those beautiful young women either.
It seemed like part of my gentle, tolerant, funloving city's soul had died with them.
And now another young woman has been killed. By another killer with stone cold eyes armed with some kind of rifle or long gun.
The shock and the sorrow is the same. The difference is that after the first tragedy Quebecers and Canadians were able to force governments to bring in new gun control legislation. And now the gun lovin' good ol' boy, yankee blowin' neocons who have hijacked our country are trying to destroy it.
That's what makes me angry.
Not only are they planning to destroy it, they have already gutted it, by encouraging gun owners to ignore the law. Like criminals. That's what makes me see red.
"The government also told long-gun owners they wouldn't face prosecution if they didn't register their weapons..."
Talk about posse justice. I wonder if they told the Dawson killer that he didn't have to register his weapon. And what kind of kooky wingnut message are they sending out anyway?
The only good news is that this latest tragedy is bound to increase public pressure for more gun controls not less. Especially in Quebec. Quebecers like most Canadians want Canada to be Canada. Not just a pathetic imitation of gun-crazy Amerika. Harper's hopes for a breakthrough in the province just got the coup de grace.
I think that most Canadians also understand that if we want to drive this plague of guns out of our midst, at least out of our urban areas, we've got to make it as hard, and as difficult, and as permanently inconvenient as we can for gun freaks to own one.
But the only way that can be accomplished is if Canadians throw out these gun worshipping neocon yankee wannabes who want to make us all less safe. Just to appease their rube, mouthbreathing, gopher shooting base.
The same wretched rubes they hope to please with their hatemongering attack on gay marriage.
In other words, if we want to save the kids. As well as ourselves.
We have to save our country first...
2 comments:
Hey Simon. This Tattered Sleeve got a new tear in it yesterday as well. I have a co-worker whose daughter was running down the street in hysterics when she called him from her cell. He hustled out of work around 2:00 pm and when I caught up with him today, he said she was alright, just pretty rattled. Whatever happened to Concordia Salus? I thought that meant "live together in peace" or some such. Some people just aren't listening.
Hi Scott...you know I hate it when there's a shooting just about anywhere in Canada, and there is always a clip in the tv item from some neighbour saying something like " It's not the kind of thing you expect to have happe here blah blah blah. I mean it could happen anywhere. But three times in Montreal? That's hard to take.But on the other hand we don't like to think that guns and Canada go together but they do. We live right next to a country that has taken gun worship to stratospheric heights. We clearly are different but not enough. Arguing over fine print and the gun registration is all fine and dandy. But what I believe we should do is take a stratospheric picture of the problem. And decide how best as a society we can reduce the number of guns out there.Period. That's why I think you were a little too enthusiastic in your endorsement of Wonderdog's latest post. He makes some good points as usual. But it is after all still a political struggle. BTW thanks for the post that I linked to. It was excellent.
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