A recent school shooting in Winnenden, Germany occurred on 11 March 2009 and once again shocked the whole world. Seventeen-year-old Tim Kretschmer opened fire with a 9mm Beretta at a secondary school. This time the death toll reached sixteen people and this event truly became a tragedy for the German people. School shootings are definitely one of the most horrible crimes and what is even worth these crimes are related to a much disputed gun policy problem. It is very hard to find a line between allowing people to have a firearm for self defense and providing minors and psychologically unstable people access to these dangerous weapons. Even when children are on the line.
The worst thing of any school shooting is the fact that you can’t predict how and when will the shooting start. There are dozens of depressed and angry kids in any school, but which one of them will grab the gun – that is unpredictable. So the best way to prevent such a tragedy is a good gun politics. Of course in any democratic country a teenager won’t be able to purchase a gun, but statistically most of the young killers somehow obtain the firearms from their parents. Or better trough carelessness of the parents. In the recent German shooting the parents had over 15 firearms in their house and only one of them was not locked. The kid found exactly this one. Sometimes the parents also underestimate the kids, a teenager, especially a smart teenager will do anything to get to a restricted thing, sometimes just for curiosity.
The history of school shooting in Canada is pretty short when compared with other countries. There were eight confirmed school shootings from 1975 to 2008 and the number of victims is only 24 killed. Of course every one of these deaths is a tragedy, but compared to other countries Canadian schools are much safer. The turning point of gun control in Canada occurred on December 6,1989 at École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, when 25 year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a legally obtained semi-automatic rifle, shot twenty-eight people, killing fourteen of them. This was called the École Polytechnique Massacre. All of the victims were women and the killer stated that he was anti-feminist. The Canadian feminist communities made this day an annual National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Still the main consequence of this shooting were changes in the laws concerning gun control and changes in the police trainings. And these changes had good effect, the largest death toll from a school shooting after 1989 was four people and the latest shootings had only one or two victims. This is a good thing; the bad thing is that people mostly need a big tragedy to get their attention to some problem.
No one can predict when a school shooting starts, the only way to protect the children is a good regulated gun policy and well trained police force and in both of these ways Canada has good results.
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