EDITORIAL – All together now, ‘Let’s demand more gun control (again)’

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

BONDI BEACH was the scene of a gathering attended by 10,000 people on Sunday. Most of us recognize the beach near Sydney, Australia as the venue for Olympics beach volleyball but a week ago the world was horrified when two gunmen killed 15 people and wounded dozens more.

The target was a Jewish festival celebrating Hannukah. There was, therefore, a lot of politics involved in the event called to pay honour to those who had been shot on that terrible day. Politics not just to do with growing antisemitism, but with the broad issue of gun control.

Australia has some of the most stringent gun control in the world, but now there are calls to make it even tighter.

Politicians have heeded the call, agreeing, for starters, to limit the number of guns an individual may own. The New South Wales state parliament will further debate new gun laws, and hate speech, today.

How predictable: another mass shooting, another call for tighter gun control. In the U.S., the same week as the Bondi atrocity, two people were killed and nine wounded by a shooter at Brown University in Rhode Island. There immediately followed demands for stricter gun laws.

Every once in a while, weak attempts are made in the U.S. to legislate new restrictions. Just as often, lawmakers vote to make it easier to own more guns, and more lethal guns. After each mass shooting, gun sales go up.

After every school massacre, slaughter at a public event, or assassination, whether based on hate, racism, politics or insanity, the media light up with stories about the need for gun control and thousands light candles and attend rallies. And then it happens all over again.

Here in Canada, the sad debate is much the same. The federal government vows to restrict various types of firearms, is obstructed by the gun lobby, compromises are made. Even the streets of Kamloops are not immune from the guns.

Will it ever end? Will there ever be a shooting so horrific, or will the numbers of dead reach such a critical mass, that something will finally be done to stop the madness?

Tragically, it doesn’t seem so.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.