Call for national gun registry
Even before the exact circumstances of the Dawson College shootings were clear, some politicians said the incident showed that a national gun registry is needed.
"We need the registry," Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe told Radio-Canada. "The costs were outrageous, but we need the registry.
"It's tragic. We can never explain why these things happen," Duceppe said. "At the [l'École] Polytechnique, women were targeted. But here, we have no idea."
Duceppe was referring to the shootings at Montreal's l'École Polytechnique de Montréal on Dec. 6, 1989, when 25-year-old Marc Lepine gunned down 14 women before fatally shooting himself. Lepine shouted "I hate feminists" as he opened fire on the female engineering students.
'We must unite'
A statement from interim Liberal leader Bill Graham and Lucienne Robillard, Westmount-Ville Marie MP, decried the "senseless" Dawson College shootings and said Canadians must join together in its aftermath.
"We must unite as a country to show our compassion for those whose lives have been dramatically altered by this inexplicable event," they said.
NDP Leader Jack Layton said the incident was a grim reminder of shootings at Columbine and École Polytechnique, and that it hit particularly close to home for him.
"I know Dawson College well, as someone who grew up in Montreal, and I can imagine the students and staff are in shock there," he said.
Layton said he awaited police confirmation on the type of gun or guns that may have been used, adding that a crackdown on the importing of illegal guns was needed.
I just watched CTV call for the useless gun registry and interview a kid of Arab origin say how glad he was it was a Nazi type. He added PM Harper would use this against Arabs if it was one of them. Sheesh. Beyond appalled. Tuning into Fox for some sanity now...
Hey, Layton, the illegal imporation of anything is called smuggling and the laws are already on the books.