The March for our Lives rallies in the U.S. have wrapped up, but the discussion over gun violence in the U.S. lingers on.
Regardless of your stance on gun laws in Canada, the U.S. or anywhere else, nobody can deny the building momentum for anti-gun violence lobbyists in the U.S. ever since 17 people were murdered at a high school in Parkland, Fla., last month.
We’ve seen mass shootings at schools and other locations in the U.S. previously. There has been the usual outrage at such a tragedy, followed by the calls for change, but then nothing has happened.
The calls for change have lasted longer this time around. People have latched on to the ideas from young people, who are fed up with hearing stories about how someone entered a school, and shot and killed people their own age, along with teachers and staff.
The messages from young people seem to have more impact with the public than politicians offering their thoughts and prayers. Who knew?
Yet will there be a lasting change stemming from March for our Lives and the other rallies that have occurred since Parkland? Probably not.
The Second Amendment makes the largescale changes that many want to see nearly impossible. And so with the exception of a few modifications, gun laws in the U.S. will remain the same.
The outcry over the Parkland shooting will eventually simmer down. There will be similar tragedies in the U.S. in the future, but the furour over those shootings will die down as well.
It’s encouraging to see the way in which the young people in Parkland and across the U.S. have kept the issue at the forefront, and have articulated their thoughts in an effort to bring about change.
This is a generation that has a reputation for having a short attention span. But they have stayed with this issue for more than a month, and they’re still fighting.
But they will eventually turn to another issue, and the talks about gun laws will diminish.
It can be hard for Canadians to truly understand gun culture in the U.S. Gun laws can be a difficult land mine to navigate in Canada, but it is truly polarizing in the U.S. You have the staunch gun supporters on one side, and the anti-gun violence side on the other, and it seems like there’s little room in the middle.
In the weeks since Parkland, the insults and rhetoric has been flowing from both sides.
It would be nice if the U.S. were to take a long hard look at Canada’s gun laws. We have guns in Canada. Lots of guns. But we don’t have close to the same degree of bloodshed in this country as our neighbours to the south.
It would be erroneous to say the gun violence problems in the U.S. can be boiled down to one issue. It’s complex and multi-layered. But the laws in Canada are far more effective.
It also forces us to ask the question of why the federal Liberal government wants to change the new gun laws. We have a system that has worked in Canada since the long gun registry was repealed. Do we have gun crimes? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean gun violence will diminish if the Liberals’ new legislation is approved.
