By: Teresa Mull

A gunman killed two people and injured 13 in Toronto on Sunday night, before being shot and killed by police. The city’s mayor reacted by immediately calling for increased gun control.

“I have said for some time that this city has a gun problem and that guns are far too readily available for far too many people,” Toronto Mayor John Tory told the city council, reported The Hill. “This is an international problem and this is a domestic problem. There are far too many people carrying around guns in our city and our region who should not have them.

“You’ve heard me ask the question of why anybody would need to buy ten or twenty guns, which they can lawfully do under the present laws,” Tory went on. “And that leads to another question we need to discuss, why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all?”

To quote Jesse Hughes, the Eagles of Death Metal lead singer who survived the 2015 mass shooting in Paris that claimed 89 lives and who has since been lambasted for daring to criticize March for Our Lives, “Until nobody has guns, everybody has to have them.”

Canada is a prime example of gun control failing to make people safer. As Gunpowder Magazine reported earlier this year, our northern neighbors have extremely restrictive gun laws, and despite the Canadian government’s professed efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, the BBC reported recently that “…Gun-related homicides and gun violence have increased. Firearm offences have also been on the rise in Canada in recent years. In 2016, there were 2,465 criminal violations involving firearms, an increase of 30 percent since 2013, according to figures released by the federal government.”

Let’s hope Canada learns its lesson and allows its citizens to defend themselves before any more innocent lives are lost to feel-good, knee-jerk legislation.

Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].

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