The column Right of Centre by Nathan Giede is usually offensive but never worse than on Dec. 9, when he advocated for a wild-west style Canadian society where many carry guns so as to protect us all from crime.
The message is exactly the same as that promoted by the National Rifle Association in the U.S.A. I'll try to limit comment about the NRA but you can go on their website and hear their "Faith and Firearms" crusade and their attack on the "Godless Left!"
Anyway their belief is that if people carry guns society is safer and when a mass shooting starts there will be enough guns in the group of innocents to take the shooter out.
How many people would need guns to act as a deterrent to mass shooters?
If we want six persons in 30 to be armed when a mass shooting starts that would require six million more guns in Canada.
Does that sound like a safer society?
The Americans have way more guns than we have per capita and also (not by coincidence) have far more people murdered with guns.
For sure our gun-murder rate would go up if we had more guns. Our number of accidental shootings would go up too. So it would make us a more dangerous society.
But the most offensive part is the concept that a gun in our hand allows us to be judge and jury. Crimes should be stopped by trained police people not by gun-toting NRA types.
Please - keep guns for target practice and hunting and not for self defense.
Keith Gordon
Fort St. James
