Mass shooting in Canada ends with 13 people and the suspect dead.

The RCMP said the attacker was using this police car to carry out the attack. BBC/Reuters. 

A mass shooting in Canada ends with 13 people and the suspect dead in Canada's worse incident of mass violence since 1989. BBC. The attacker, named by police as Gabriel Wortman, wore a police uniform and was driving a car made up to look like a police car, but was not a member of the police. The attack lasted for more than 12 hours before he was stopped and killed by police and police are still trying to find out if there are more victims. One of the victims was a RCMP officer. Police say that the suspect may have had a connection with some of the victims but others were attacked randomly. Mass violence is somewhat rare in Canada and this attack was the worst since the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre.

Other sources are saying that 17 people died in the attack which would make it the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history, with more deaths possible. 

My Comment:

It's been awhile since there has been a mass shooting. Under the Coronavirus lockdown a traditional mass shooting isn't easy to accomplish. But this isn't a traditional mass shooting, it's a spree killing. He killed many people in many different locations so this isn't a mass shooting. 

There isn't a whole lot of information about the attacker. According to The Heavy, the attacker was a denturist, someone who makes dentures. He also had an interest in the police and owned multiple retired police cruisers. But there is almost no information on why he carried out this attack. 

It's also unclear if this was a planned rampage or a spur of the moment thing. Though having a vehicle painted up as a police car and a full police uniform suggests planning, it does sound like he had those things in the first place. And it is possible that he had some true targets in mind and killed everyone else as a spur of the moment thing. 

If the death numbers are right and this is the worst shooting in Canadian history, expect it to be a major blow to gun rights. It's unclear what weapons the attacker may have used but it is clear that he used some form of gun. With Canada already insanely hostile to gun rights I wouldn't be surprised that new gun control laws are made. 

However, I do think this shows that gun control laws in Canada are less than useless. This attacker was able to get a gun and without CCW nobody could defend themselves against the attacker. And given how much effort he put into this attack I am guessing that if he hadn't been able to get a gun he would have been able to figure out another effective way to kill a large number of people. 

That being said, I don't think the people who were attacked had much of a chance. With a police uniform and cruiser people would have pulled over for him and not offered much in the way of resistance. He could have killed them at his discretion. It also may have been harder for police to track down this killer if he was wearing their uniform. 

I do wonder how related to this to the Coronavirus lockdown. Canada has been essentially closed now for weeks with no end in sight. The economy has collapsed there too and a lot of people are feeling the pinch. Not everyone is handling it well. Could it be that this attacker, who may have been on the edge already, was pushed off by the lockdown? It's unclear but I would be very interested to find out.