For Immediate Release
3 June 2010
Prince George, BC – “The suicidal mass shooting spree by Derrick Bird that killed 12 people and wounded another 25, in the northwest of England on Wednesday, is yet another example of the failure of firearm control laws when faced with evil intentions and insane action,” said Sheldon Clare, President of Canada’s National Firearms Association. “Those who would cause mayhem will continue to do so regardless of the law,” he continued. “While mass shootings by individuals are fortunately rare in all jurisdictions, those in Britain have occurred regardless of the strict controls in place. Banning handguns and restricting access to other firearms does not prevent violence and it does not reduce suicides. The research is clear that persons with evil intent substitute other methods to carry out their acts. In this case the law mattered little to a person bent on senseless violence and destruction.”
“The British have suffered from successive waves of draconian gun control over the past several decades in the wake of a number of high-profile shootings committed by individual gunmen who later proved to have long histories of mental illness. Those measures included a complete ban on civilian handgun ownership in the United Kingdom, and the instituting of excessive limitations on the legal ownership of long guns. As the latest act of madness carried out in the idyllic environs of Cumbria proves, you cannot legislate against mental illness. Instead of addressing the root causes of these types of senseless acts, via increased access to mental health care resources for troubled individuals; the flawed official response following two mass U.K. shootings, in 1987 and 1996, has been to increase controls on the law-abiding firearms-owning public. Such initiatives have not and will not prevent such tragedies. Targeting the law-abiding does not work. The research is clear: Canadians who own firearms, for instance, are less than half as likely as the general population to commit an act of violence,” explained Clare.
Clare stated, “An expensive registration and licensing program is not the answer to prevent violence with firearms - these bad laws have not stopped violent acts and they never will. When confronted with a bad person with a firearm, the logical response is to either use your own in defence, or to call someone with a gun to defend you. At Dawson College a rampage was stopped by the fortunate presence of someone with a firearm – in that case a peace officer. Britain made the choice to severely restrict firearms ownership – a choice that has not worked. People there have no access to the means to defend themselves from this sort of violence. Terrible crimes like that in Great Britain are only preventable through education and better access to health care for troubled people and their families and friends.”
Canada’s National Firearms Association is this country’s main advocacy organization supporting firearms ownership, recreational and competitive shooting disciplines, and self defence. The NFA lobbies governments for fair firearms legislation, supports legal action against unfair firearms law and promotes the repeal of unfair firearms legislation.