Earlier this year, my daughter's private school went into lockdown over concerns an intruder had come onto school grounds. It was a false alarm but it was nerve racking nonetheless.
As we awaited news, one thing that entered my mind was why the school didn't have security. In this day and age, I can't understand why we're willing to leave are students vulnerable in this manner. It's almost as if we want to cling to a naive world view that nothing bad is going to happen. That if we do the responsible thing and bring in protection it somehow means we're giving up our innocence.
Worse, we've come to believe school shootings are an American problem.
It's an incredibly foolish and irresponsible thing to think.
In the city of Montreal alone there have been three deadly shootings since 1989. There have been 24 in total and 13 since 1975 across Canada.
And Canada has an exploding gun violence problem.
This in a country with gun control.
By contrast, there have been 479 school shootings in the USA since 1764. With a spike, interestingly, taking place since 2000. While this is one too many obviously, this is not a problem necessarily unique to the USA. For example, the same phenomena can be observed in China strangely where elementary shootings are concerned.
In addition, there have been about 257 school shootings world wide since the 19th century.
One can argue, in a country with the second amendment and over 500 million guns in circulation by some estimates (300 millions of those registered), there's more at play here than needing stricter gun control laws.
The interesting fact about this is that it's happening in a time where gun violence is on the decline for decades now.
In fact, one can even further put forth America is nowhere near as violent as perceived. It's also worth cautioning against comparing American gun violence with the rest of the world.
Taking gun control for granted combined with American voyeurism has lulled us into a false sense of security. It's created a degree of cognitive dissonance disconnected us from reality. The facts don't justify any of this.
You would think people would understand it's not just about gun control.
Bad people get their hands on guns and we need to realize it's a reality. Facing this fact with gun free zones and refusing to arm our schools is immature if not beyond the pale.
Food for thought for Canadians.
*This post has been revised and updated to adjust for errors. My apologies.
As we awaited news, one thing that entered my mind was why the school didn't have security. In this day and age, I can't understand why we're willing to leave are students vulnerable in this manner. It's almost as if we want to cling to a naive world view that nothing bad is going to happen. That if we do the responsible thing and bring in protection it somehow means we're giving up our innocence.
Worse, we've come to believe school shootings are an American problem.
It's an incredibly foolish and irresponsible thing to think.
In the city of Montreal alone there have been three deadly shootings since 1989. There have been 24 in total and 13 since 1975 across Canada.
And Canada has an exploding gun violence problem.
This in a country with gun control.
By contrast, there have been 479 school shootings in the USA since 1764. With a spike, interestingly, taking place since 2000. While this is one too many obviously, this is not a problem necessarily unique to the USA. For example, the same phenomena can be observed in China strangely where elementary shootings are concerned.
In addition, there have been about 257 school shootings world wide since the 19th century.
One can argue, in a country with the second amendment and over 500 million guns in circulation by some estimates (300 millions of those registered), there's more at play here than needing stricter gun control laws.
The interesting fact about this is that it's happening in a time where gun violence is on the decline for decades now.
In fact, one can even further put forth America is nowhere near as violent as perceived. It's also worth cautioning against comparing American gun violence with the rest of the world.
Taking gun control for granted combined with American voyeurism has lulled us into a false sense of security. It's created a degree of cognitive dissonance disconnected us from reality. The facts don't justify any of this.
You would think people would understand it's not just about gun control.
Bad people get their hands on guns and we need to realize it's a reality. Facing this fact with gun free zones and refusing to arm our schools is immature if not beyond the pale.
Food for thought for Canadians.
*This post has been revised and updated to adjust for errors. My apologies.
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