[RD] Nova Scotia mass killings

[Lemon Merchant]

I can't accept the notion that it's a mental illness to take out your demons on others.

Mental illness can do strange things to people. It can even cause them to kill in cases of schizophrenia, extreme psychosis, or in the case of the proverbial "psychopath," who may kill for kicks. Mental illness is still no excuse to plan and execute a killing spree, whether he was in the grip of extreme psychosis or not (and I am not speculating here, I have no idea as to his mental state as he was doing this), but he should have sought help. And as Aimee says, most mentally ill people are the victims of crime, rather than the perpetrators. I was reading today that the perp has a history of dubious legal behaviour, from fraud to assault. Apparently, according to a couple of people who knew him personally, he was clever and deceitful. It seems in the article that I read that he had no conscience about fleecing his fraud victims.

Cabin fever? As if the shooter snapped and just happened to find himself in possession of firearms and the ability to imitate an RCMP officer.

Yeah, that person's theory didn't hold up very well with me.

 

[Zardnaar]

Sigh.

 

[El_Machinae]

Well, this one ended up affecting within my circle in ways that I won't go into here.
I can tell you, that from this perspective, the rapid politicization was very frustrating.

People are sharing articles with headlines describing partisan motives. And when I click the link looking for information that I don't have, it's just speculative crap. Then, I'm both disappointed in my friend for sharing crap AND noticing that the noise makes this more painful.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I know that Trudeau is pushing for gun control. I think he was already planning to do so anyways, but...

 

[Farm Boy]

Water's wet?

 

[Narz]

From rumours on social media, he was pulling people over to execute them.

That's some sick ****, like something out of a horror movie.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/gunfire-mass-killings-fire-hall-1.5541302

Nova Scotia's police watchdog says two RCMP officers opened fire at an Onslow, N.S., fire hall while a gunman was rampaging through the province Sunday — but the suspect was not in the area at the time.

Pat Curran, the interim director of the Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), said Wednesday it was unclear what the officers were firing at after they pulled up outside the Onslow Belmont Fire Hall around 10:30 a.m. AT.

"At this point we don't know what they were shooting at," he said in an email.

This is...kind of strange.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/rcmp-new-details-timeline-nova-scotia-manhunt-1.5541561

The police force has come under fire for not putting out a provincial alert at any point over the weekend.

Leather addressed that on Wednesday, saying at 10:15 a.m. the provincial emergency management officials reached out to offer use of the alerting system.

"We were in the process of preparing an alert when the gunman was shot and killed by the RCMP," Leather said.

Hm.

 

[Gorbles]

Worst take I've seen on social media so far: someone using this tragedy as an excuse to claim because something like this happened in Canada, that therefore mass shootings in the US (which has a relatively different contextual and cultural take on gun rights) have no relation to the availability of the respective firearms used.

My sympathies to any Canadian, and thanks for aimee for bringing the news to this thread as it comes. It isn't always an easy task to relay this kind of horror.

 

[Cutlass]

I know that Trudeau is pushing for gun control. I think he was already planning to do so anyways, but...

I thought Canada already had fairly strict gun control?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I thought Canada already had fairly strict gun control?

I don't know much about it, but here's a Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_regulation_in_Canada

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1728181827692

This scares the crap out of me because I recognize the exact area.

 

[El_Machinae]

It's unrelated. There is no amount of gun control to protect you from a business-owning professional who will then mock up a police cruiser and go on a suicidal killing spree

We don't have enough details to go into the politics of this 'problem'.

 

[Estebonrober]

It's unrelated. There is no amount of gun control to protect you from a business-owning professional who will then mock up a police cruiser and go on a suicidal killing spree

We don't have enough details to go into the politics of this 'problem'.

Except that is a peculiarly modern phenomenon that I still don't think anyone has a good grip on psychologically.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

The RCMP said that he didn't have a gun license.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

https://www.citynews1130.com/2020/04/23/would-be-victim-nova-scotia-gunman-list-report/

HALIFAX (NEWS 1130) – Disturbing details are emerging as the investigation into last weekend’s murder spree in Nova Scotia continues.

The gunman — responsible for 22 deaths at 16 different crime-scenes — apparently had a so-called hit-list, according to a report by The Globe and Mail. Gabriel Wortman had apparently put together a list of people to target, one of his would-be victims told the outlet.

Nathan Staples, who lives about 15 minutes from where the killing began Saturday night, said investigators told him Tuesday that his name was on a list they found at a property of the shooter.

He was reportedly seventh or eighth on that list.

Staples said he can’t guess why he would be among those targeted, other than noting that, a few months earlier, he had refused to sell Wortman a used police car.

In the most recent update, Nova Scotia RCMP investigators said the gunman acted alone, although whether he had help before the mass shooting is still being looked into. Mounties have also said the weapons used during the rampage were unlicensed and illegal.

Well that's disturbing.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

This cartoon (by Bruce MacKinnon) appeared in today's Chronicle-Herald:

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I just got an Alert Ready for shooting going on down near Halifax. In order, my thoughts are:

1. WTF IS GOING ON WITH THIS PROVINCE???
2. I'm glad they actually sent one this time....

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I know that Trudeau is pushing for gun control. I think he was already planning to do so anyways, but...

After the Ecole Polytechnique shooting there was some progress made, but then Harper and his Reformacons cheated their way into power years later and dismantled whatever progress had been made.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-gun-control-measures-ban-1.5552131

Kind of odd that this comes as a result of the rampage, considering that most of the guns used there were illegal.

 

[El_Machinae]

Ugh. Theatre.