Canada – -(Ammoland.com)- Ottawa police Sgt. Mike Saunders, attempting to explain the record-breaking year for shootings in the nation’s capital, said: “There’s just more guns in the city,” as if that magically answered all questions about a 50 percent rise in shootings from just one year ago.
It answered none of them.
The Ottawa Sun article that quoted Sgt. Saunders is remarkable not for what it says – but for what it avoids saying about the rash of shootings.
For example, there is no mention of what types of firearms were used in all these shootings.
Given the massive media coverage surrounding the anniversary of the horrific Polytechnique shooting each year, it is hard to believe a news editor wouldn’t take a free shot at the government if the issue was long guns.
The more pressing question is why is this the first time we’re hearing about all these shootings?
The top 50 Google search results for “shootings in Ottawa 2014” yield dozens of accounts of the Parliament Hill shooting that claimed the life of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo – but not a single word about any of these other shootings.
There is no mention of them in the press release section of the Ottawa Police website either. A search for the word “shooting” returned only 5 press releases, none of which listed a shooting event other than at Parliament Hill.
There are no news reports and no police press releases on 44 shootings in our nation’s capital in 2014.
Why not?
Could it be that both the police and the press deemed these shootings “not important enough” to write about? While it is possible police may not want to publicize shootings, it is the duty of news reporters and news editors to report the news. So why aren’t news reporters and news editors covering these other shootings in our nation’s capital?
Only they can answer that, but it appears they are unwilling to do so.
The Ottawa Sun article states:
“It’s kind of a mixed bag of different reasons,” said Ottawa police Sgt. Mike Saunders, of the shootings seen this year. “There’s just more guns in the city.”
It wasn’t a gang war that accounted for a spike in shootings across the city this year, said cops. In fact, police said there wasn’t really any common thread that can be attributed to the rise in gunplay.
Curiously, left out of this entire article is any mention of the type of firearms used in these shootings.
Given that almost every police chief in the country thinks that scrapping the long gun registry was a bad idea, if long guns had been used in these shootings we surely would have heard all about it – especially in early December. Could it be that we didn’t hear a peep about it because bad guys carry handguns, not long arms?
So the police aren’t talking about handguns and reporters aren’t pressing the issue. That is a failure of our press, pure and simple.
Why are no reporters digging into why handgun crime in our nation’s capital rose 50 percent over last year? Isn’t that news?
Lastly we must question the comment made by Ottawa police Sgt. Mike Saunders: “There’s just more guns in the city.”
Really?
If that is true, confirming it is very easy. Simply query the Canadian Firearms Program and ask how many restricted firearms (handguns) are registered in the Ottawa area. Then ask how many there were a year ago. Simple math tells that story. Law-abiding Ottawa area gun owners probably didn’t buy a shocking number of handguns last year though.
It seems the same cannot be said for Ottawa area criminals. If there are “more guns in the city” – as Sgt. Saunders claims – they are in the hands of criminals, not law-abiding gun owners.
This atrocious lack of reporting does raise many more questions, though, doesn’t it?
Questions like:
- Where did all these handguns come from?
- Why are gangs and other criminals able to obtain illegal handguns so easily?
- Why can’t we stop the flow of illegal handguns?
- Why do we insist on blaming Canada’s most law-abiding citizens, licensed firearm owners, for the crimes committed by criminals?
Think we’ll get answers to these significant questions? Guess again.
“Allan Rock said he came to Ottawa with the belief that only the police and military should have firearms. I believe that firearms ownership is a right, but a right that comes with responsibilities.” – The Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety
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The CSSA is the voice of the sport shooter and firearms enthusiast in Canada. Our national membership supports and promotes Canada’s firearms heritage, traditional target shooting competition, modern action shooting sports, hunting, and archery. We support and sponsor competitions and youth programs that promote these Canadian heritage activities. Website www.cdnshootingsports.org
“Why are gangs and other criminals able to obtain illegal handguns so easily? Why can’t we stop the flow of illegal handguns?” Was the government able to stop the flow of illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine to Canadian criminals? These are outlawed even in America, so if you couldn’t stop these how could any Canadian be so stupid as to think they could do better stopping criminals from getting handguns? As an analogy, ISIS has taken most of its weapons from Iraqi soldiers. Does this mean that the best way to suppress ISIS is via an embargo to… Read more »
Wait for it! Wait for it! Canadian officials will probably blame the common border with the US. We’re already being blamed for guns going into Mexico, now we’ll be blamed for guns going into Canada. Will ‘Fast and Furious’ be followed by ‘Fast and Frosty”?
Gee, the US gun ownership increased 50% in the last 15 years, and yet shootings have decreased by almost the same percent during that time. Don’t tell me the mounties are having a tough time trying to keep the gun free zones gun free?