Of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about firearms violence and it’s prevention.
I have come to the firm conclusion that we need to fundamentally change the narrative. All we ever hear about is urban gangs and smuggled handguns and the rare but always horrifying mass shootings

Firearm violence is so much more than criminal activity- it is about suicide, intimate partner violence, unintentional paediatric injury and yes mass shootings

Different problems require different solutions. There is no one size fits all approach and laws and enforcement will not solely succeed

We need to start a dialogue about the prevention of all those firearm suicides that you never get to hear about. Suicide is impulsive and far from inevitable. Other methods of suicide give people a second chance; guns never do

The effect on families, communities and society is enormous. We must do better; we can do better

I would like to see the Public Health Agency of Canada do more to develop an awareness of the “other” forms of gun violence and why it poses a public health problem

I would like to see an educational campaign aimed at health care workers to teach them about how they should engage their patients about firearm safety and injury prevention

I would like to see safe storage laws that are more than laws in the books but can actually be verified or better yet, central storage. No Canadian should have an Arsenal in their basement

I would like to see Minister Blair do more than muse about Red Flag laws- preventing access to firearms for individuals at risk of inappropriate use might save lives

I would like to see some dedicated funding for Canadian based research on firearm injury and death; StatsCan is not the answer

And I would like to see a discussion and a change in attitude about the roles of firearms in current Canadian society

Canada has fundamentally changed and evolved. The image of the rugged pioneer and the hunter-gatherer is no longer who we are