BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today said the weekend rampage in Nova Scotia provided more proof that strict gun control laws will not prevent determined individuals from committing mayhem.
Authorities now say at least 22 people were killed, as more victims have been discovered by investigators. Many were apparently killed in their own homes while obeying “stay home” mandates due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We offer our sympathies to our Canadian neighbors, and especially to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for their loss,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “But we do not believe adding more restrictions on gun ownership for law-abiding Canadian citizens will to anything to prevent such tragedies in the future.
“For decades,” he continued, “we have been on the front lines in the battle to protect our Second Amendment. We’ve listened to repeated claims that the next new gun law is going to prevent violent crimes and make people safer. The only people made safer by restrictive gun laws are criminals and crazy persons who attack honest citizens, even in their own homes, and to whom ‘gun-free zone’ signs translate to a risk-free environment.”
Gottlieb noted that the presumed Nova Scotia killer apparently fooled at least some of his victims by dressing as an RCMP constable, and driving around in what apparently was a decommissioned patrol vehicle he had restored.
“Canada has very strict gun policies, but those regulations did not prevent the murder spree,” Gottlieb observed. “We find it appalling that many in the U.S. gun prohibition movement have argued in support of Canadian-type gun laws for this country. It is time for gun control extremists on both sides of the border to admit their strategies have consistently failed, and in some cases have even cost lives.
“Instead of allowing anti-gunners to exploit this tragedy,” he said, “let’s learn from it. The very first lesson may be hard for some to accept, but it is this: Extremist gun control laws do not prevent unspeakable crimes and they perpetuate a false sense of security that often has tragic results. Adopting new restrictions will not change that dynamic and may even make things worse. We cannot allow what happened in Canada to influence our policies here. We must zealously protect our right to keep and bear arms.”