U.S. reaction to the shooting
In the U.S. papers, everyone is drawing a parallel to the Columbine shooting in the 1990s. The dark trenchcoat reference yesterday had already made me think the same thing — enough to Google whether September 13 was an anniversary related to Columbine (it’s not). According to the LA Times, the shooter was obsessed with the Columbine killings and even played an internet video game about them.
What seems particularly shocking to folks in the States is that a shooting like this could happen in Canada. Michael Moore’s film “Bowling for Columbine” depicted Canada as a safe, cheerful, gun-free paradise.
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Gun-free? Hardly. Moore was saying that Canada has a ton of guns, but they’re used mostly for hunting and our level of gun violence is much less than that in the US. This is still true. One incident doesn’t change the statistics much.
I can’t see how people in the US or otherwise could be “shocked” about this happening here - the National Assembly in 1984, U de M in 1989, Concordia in 1992, and now this. More than one random shooting a decade in the last 22 years in Quebec. Plus the school shooting in Taber, Alberta and the shoot out at the Eaton Centre in Toronto last year. Where exactly does the idea of a “peaceful” Canadian society come from?
I can’t get over the “internet video game” based on the Columbine tragedy. Unconscionable.
Because even if there are Canadian troops in Iraq, your rap is as the not-violent-bastards country in North America.
I’d hazard that most Americans were unaware of the prior school violence in Canada - though perhaps it was referenced during Columbine coverage (I don’t recall it).
Perhaps we just want Canada to be a peaceful society because then one exists. Makes you exotic and attractive . . . .