My Thoughts on Canada's Banning of Assault Rifles

On May 1, 2020, the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau had announced the banning of 1500 different types of assault rifles. This was the reaction of the gruesome mass killing in Nova Scotia on April 18, 2020. The shooter of this atrocious act had used an assault rifle to carry out his heinous act.

I understand what Justin Trudeau had done with banning the assault rifle. There really is nothing that he can do to prevent someone from committing another horrific act like the events that occurred in Nova Scotia. Really there's nothing that anyone of us can do because people will do what they want to do if they have enough conviction and enough planning.

In the instance of Nova Scotia, the killer had already illegally obtained the assault rifle. We have to start asking ourselves how was he able to smuggle this unlicensed assault rifle in the first place? Canada already has a gun registry but usually people that commit these detestable crimes obtain their weapons illegally.

It's an added shock to Canadians because this type of crime rarely happens. The last time something this loathsome and so publicized was August 24, 1992 in Montreal. A lone gunman took the lives of 14 innocent female students at École Polytechnique. That was close to 28 years ago since we've had something this despicable.

Canada is a fairly safe country to live in and all Canadians are saddened when such unspeakable crimes are committed. I now question the effect of banning the assault rifles in Canada.

There is one side that argues that Canadians should bear arms. If another incident like this should happen Canadians should be able to defend themselves and prevent others from getting killed. I understand the sentiment in this argument but I restate that we haven't had a huge shooting like this for 28 years. Having more guns in households can cause unnecessary accidents result in more deaths. Don't kid ourselves we are human. We make mistakes and some of us aren't the brightest.

So you might think I'm for banning the assault rifles. I think it's a shrewd political move to act so fast in banning the assault rifles but I don't think it gets at the heart of the problem.

I stated earlier that the gunman had obtained the assault rifle without having registered the gun in the first place. How was he able to carry out with his plans without any authorities catching wind of his abhorrent plans? I think this is what we should focus more on.

Frankly I'm a little confused why we weren't able to piece together that he had planned this at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). That's like the Canadian FBI. We just went through a war on terror and we can't figure out this guy was planning this outrageous crime? He obviously planned it for a while because he was able to obtain a car that looked like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer and had a vehicle to match.

My mind keeps racing about these issues and I don't even live in the Nova Scotia. I can't imagine what the good citizens of Nova Scotia are going through. I'm sure a lot of Canadian's have tons of questions as well. My heart goes out to everyone in Nova Scotia. They did not deserve this and they need all the support they can get.

In the end I don't know if banning assault rifles will prevent these shameful murderers from committing their terrible plans. I hope it will make it harder to obtain an assault rifle but really I think he got his assault rifle through underhanded methods. Just like all criminals they're not going to care if there's a law preventing them from obtaining items to commit their crimes. I think we have to figure out ways to close the sale of illegal firearms within Canada. I know it's easier said than done but at least let the Canadian people know that there's a plan to get this done. I'm sure it would help us have a little more piece of mind than just a ban. These guns should never have been in anyone's hands in the first place.