Mass Shooting in Canada

[Glenn E. Meyer]

The argument will be that the existence of legal guns in the population leads to some of them bleeding into crime. IIRC, from an American Society of Criminology report, in the USA, if a new gun end up in crime and only had one legit owner and was identified in a crime, the average time to crime was 10 years (the owner could use for crime, it could be lost or stolen). If the gun was legitimately sold to someone, from that point the time to crime on the average time to crime was 5 years. Thus, the argument was that the existence of legal guns will lead some of them to be used in crime.

Thus, get rid of all guns or have more draconian rules (such as being locked up at sports clubs). A friend of mine, Gary Mauser (a Canadian scholar) has argued that Canadians use guns for SD at a significant rate.

Journal of Criminal Justice
Volume 24, Issue 5, 1996, Pages 393-406

Armed self-defense: The Canadian case

Abstract

There is a vigorous debate over the frequency with which private citizens resort to the use of firearms for self-defense. No information has been previously available about how often firearms are used defensively outside of the United States. This article estimates the frequency with which firearms are used for self-protection by analyzing three telephone surveys of the general public in Canada and a fourth survey of the general public in the United States. Canadians report using firearms to protect themselves between 60,000 and 80,000 times per year from dangerous people or animals. More importantly, between 19,000 and 37,500 of these incidents involve defense against human threats. The results of the American survey confirm estimates about the frequency of firearms used for self-protection in the United States (Kleck, 1988, 1991). In comparison with the number of households with firearms, the frequency with which Canadians use firearms to defend themselves against human threats is somewhat less than that of Americans. Policymakers in both the United States and in Canada should be aware the private ownership of firearms has benefits as well as costs for society. Firearm bans may cost more lives than they save.

There was a vigorous debate with Canadian antigun scholars denouncing Gary. What else is new? You can use google scholar to see that if you wish.

Gary and I shot together at various conferences and we have fun stories but that's for another thread.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Gary is a bit of a celebrity in my world. His research is always interesting; he's a true asset to the Canadian gun community.

[Wendell]

The argument will be that the existence of legal guns in the population leads to some of them bleeding into crime...

Today, in response to a question from CBC's Paul Withers, RCMP Superintendent Darren Campbell said that, of the firearms recovered, one had been traced "to Canada", and the remaining weapons "that have been recovered" were believed to been "obtained in the United States".

The question starts at about 1:05:36.

[Wendell]

On Friday, a group of law professors at Dalhousie University wrote a letter to Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil calling for a public inquiry. “In a modern democracy committed to state accountability, an internal investigation will not suffice. Independence, impartiality and transparency are essential components of maintaining public confidence in the administration of justice. Only a public inquiry can satisfy these requirements,” the letter says. “The families of the victims, Nova Scotians and Canadians deserve a transparent, impartial and independent assessment of why and how this incident occurred.”
https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/ne...awyers-451139/

[Wendell]

The 40-page document says the killer had two semi-automatic rifles and three pistols in the stolen vehicle he was driving when he was fatally shot by the RCMP in Enfield. One of the rifles and two of the pistols had live rounds in the chambers and one of the pistols was cocked and the safety was off. One of the pistols, a 9-mm Smith and Wesson, belonged to RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson, who was among the killer’s 22 victims, along with three other people who were shot and wounded.
https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/ne...aviour-451518/

[Wendell]

A forestry worker for more than 30 years, Leon Joudrey says he only feels safe in the woods after the weekend of April 18, when a gunman went on a killing spree, claiming the lives of 22 people in several Nova Scotia communities. A good friend of Greg and Jamie Blair -- who were among the 22 victims -- Joudrey spent part of the evening at their home the night of April 18. He came home around 10 p.m. and remembers hearing gunshots shortly after, but says he didn’t think much of it, as it’s fairly common to hear that sound in the rural community. An early riser, Joudrey got up around 3:30 a.m. on April 19 to walk his dogs. That’s when he saw a message on his phone about fires in the area. “I went for a drive. It’s only a few hundred yards out to Portapique Road … seen a little bit of flame and a SWAT vehicle and I knew it was Gabriel’s house,” recalls Joudrey. “I figured they were there looking for him because I knew what he was like.” Unnerved by the fire and police presence, Joudrey returned to his home and grabbed his shotgun. “Got my shotgun, with my phone, went in my bedroom with my dogs, because if SWAT’s around, ERT (Emergency Response Team), you stay in your house.” He stayed there until early the next morning, when he heard someone pounding on his door. It was Wortman’s girlfriend, who had just spent hours hiding from her boyfriend in the woods. “She came in, told me stuff went on, just that he went crazy, is what she said,” recalls Joudrey. “She couldn’t call 911. I called 911. They came, three vehicles, about six of them with SWAT, guns, and all hell broke loose then.”
https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/i-can-t-...home-1.4945493

As for why the shooter didn’t come to his house, Joudrey says he suspects it’s because Wortman knew he was a hunter who had guns in his home. “He knew I had firearms, which are legal of course, but he knew I was confrontational and I might interrupt his plan. That’s the only thing I can think of.”

https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/i-can-t-...home-1.4945493

[Wendell]

The Nova Scotia government, not the federal government, is ultimately responsible for policing in the province and has a duty to take the lead in calls for a public inquiry into last month’s mass shooting, says Dr. John Butt, the province’s former medical examiner. While the RCMP is a federal agency, the province contracts the RCMP to provide policing in the province. For that reason, the RMCP in Nova Scotia fall largely under provincial jurisdiction, said Butt. That, and policing in the province, also fall under the responsibility of Justice Minister Mark Furey. Meanwhile, Premier Stephen McNeil suggested the province does not have the authority to launch an inquiry into the unprecedented event that began in Portapique. He has maintained that it should be led by the federal government. Several experts, including more than 30 law professors at Dalhousie University, have called on the province to commit to a full independent inquiry since the tragedy played out last month. Butt said ultimately the province has no choice but to commit to one.
https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/ne...ooting-452634/

[Wendell]

Police agencies across Nova Scotia were warned in May 2011 that a denturist named Gabriel Wortman had a stash of guns and said he wanted "to kill a cop," according to records newly obtained by CBC News. But the Nova Scotia RCMP can't say what, if anything, was done with the tip about the man who police believe went on to kill 22 people, including an RCMP officer, in rural Nova Scotia in April. The 2011 warning came after an unnamed source approached Truro Police Cpl. Greg Densmore with detailed information about where Wortman kept his guns, including that he may have been transporting a handgun between his home in Dartmouth and his cottage in Portapique, N.S. CBC News obtained a copy of Densmore's report from the Truro Police Service through an access-to-information request. Sections are redacted, but it shows the bulletin was distributed through the Criminal Intelligence Service of Nova Scotia, a network of policing agencies that share information. There appear to be contradictions around who was responsible for acting on the tip. Wortman's cottage in Portapique is in RCMP territory, but his principal residence in Dartmouth was not in RCMP jurisdiction, said Cpl. Jennifer Clarke, spokesperson for the Nova Scotia RCMP. She doesn't know if anyone from the RCMP ever followed up on the concerns. "I don't know what was done or what wasn't done at the time," she told CBC News. The Halifax Regional Police say they investigated the tip at the time and even interviewed some of Wortman's relatives. Investigators determined that any information about weapons was related to Wortman's cottage and not his property in Dartmouth. They sent their findings to the RCMP, according to Const. John MacLeod, a spokesperson for the Halifax Regional Police. But Clarke said that as the manhunt for the gunman began in Portapique late on April 18, the RCMP didn't have the information in the 2011 bulletin at their disposal as it had been purged from their records. She said the force typically keeps such warnings for only two years. When asked whether that information could have been helpful to officers who responded to the shooting, Clarke said it was difficult to say. The bulletin came to light April 19 when an officer from the Amherst Police Service recognized Wortman's name and dug up the 2011 notice in his email. He shared the information with his supervisor, who passed it on to the RCMP, according to Amherst Police Chief Dwayne Pike. Truro Police Chief Dave MacNeil said one of his officers also recovered the nine-year-old document about a week later, after it was brought to their attention. It's the latest indication that there were warning signs years in advance that Wortman was dangerous. "This is the largest mass [shooting] in Canada's history, and it's a piece of the story," MacNeil said in an interview. "What piece that plays, I don't know. I'm not at liberty to speculate on that, but it's information that should be shared with the public."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...ning-1.5589277

[Wendell]

Colchester County councillor Tom Taggart says he has lost all faith in the RCMP brass following the latest revelation of a warning issued in 2011 about the gunman who recently went on a killing rampage in Nova Scotia that was never properly followed up. Taggart said he finds that response entirely unacceptable. Taggart said he believes there is something happening within the bureaucracy of the force “that’s out of control. That answers to nobody. That’s pretty harsh but I’m not happy here,” he said. “I’ve lost faith … I’m fed up with it.” Mike Gregory a fellow Colchester County councillor and retired RCMP member who spent 25 and a half years in the force said he too questions how such information could just go by the wayside. “If this guy was living in my area, and a bulletin came out like that in 2011, and said that this guy should be on the radar because he’s a police hater and he wants to kill a policeman, boy, if he’s still living in my area, you are not going to let that thing drop. You’re going to make sure that every police officer that gets transferred to this detachment is going to know, ‘this guy here, this is what he drives and he’s a police hater’,” Gregory said. “Just to let it drop and take it off the radar after two years, my god almighty.” Paul Palango is a former national editor of the Globe and Mail who was in charge “of all investigative reporting” and who has written three books on the RCMP. Palango said he believes the Mountie’s are hiding “explosive” information relating to the gunman’s case. He said that opinion was also expressed in a recent confidential telephone call he received suggesting a secret relationship between police and the gunman. “And this person was quite upset, saying they are trying to cover something up which is very explosive,” Palango said. “What is suggests to me, is, that this may be the tip of the iceberg leading into the relationship between (the gunman) and the police, particularly the RCMP, and that he was somehow … it seems farfetched, but was he a confidential informant? “It’s a reasonable question because there’s hardly any other way to explain all the anomalies in the story. Which are, his flagrant police cars, the other flagrant things he was doing and getting away with, with his guns, etc. I mean, there have been stories about him being involved in cigarette smuggling and possibility the killing of someone in the United States. What was going on? What was the police relationship?” Palango said. “To my mind, having spent many years looking at policing and having written many, many stories, the logic of this story is that there is a hidden relationship here somewhere.” Provincial RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Jennifer Clarke said she could not offer any comment on that “speculation.” “I’m not going to be able to comment on whether someone was a coded informant. That’s not something that I would be able to speak about,” she said. “We understand people’s need for knowledge, people’s need to understand this. We’re doing the same thing. We’re doing everything we can to understand what happened and why. And when we’re able to release more we certainly will. But right now we can’t.”
https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/ne...r-case-455725/

[Wendell]

"I'm angry more than anything. I'm angry that 22 people lost their lives and I really, truly believe that this could have been prevented," said Ryan Farrington, whose mother and stepfather, Dawn Madsen and Frank Gulenchyn, were killed in the April 18-19 massacre. Farrington said there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the tragedy, as well as the 2011 tip. He said he was told by RCMP that the Truro police had information that could have prevented the massacre, but that it wasn't shared with them. The Truro Police Service said they never had any direct dealings with Wortman, who lived outside their coverage area, but shared all the information available nine years ago with other police agencies because of how serious it was. The documents obtained by CBC through access to information show that one day after the 2011 bulletin, someone at the RCMP followed up with Cpl. Greg Densmore, the Truro officer who wrote the officer safety bulletin. In that exchange Densmore passed along details about the truck and jeep Wortman is believed to have used to drive between Dartmouth and Portapique. "There's just so much we need to know and we're not getting answers," Farrington said. He hopes the federal government calls a public inquiry that would address questions such as what the RCMP knew and when, how Wortman was able to bring in weapons illegally across the Canada-U.S. border, how he was able to get a police uniform and outfit his vehicle to look like an RCMP cruiser.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...-son-1.5590412