Canada school shooting and the gun-free zone problem

The Tumbler Ridge, B.C. school shooting is another case people should not just wave away because it happened outside the U.S.

Basic facts from the reports I read:

• It happened Feb. 10, 2026, at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in northeastern British Columbia.
• RCMP said the active-shooter call came in around 1:20 p.m.
• Global News reported eight victims killed, plus the shooter dead, and 27 injured.
• Police said six victims were found dead at the school and two more at another location.
• Later reporting named the shooter as Jesse VanRootselaar and said she had killed her mother, Jennifer Strang, and 11-year-old half-brother, Emmett Jacobs, before going to the school.
• The shooter was reported dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted injury.

That is in Canada, not Texas or Florida. Canada already has licensing, restricted firearms rules, a national handgun transfer freeze since 2022, and the usual school “no guns here” reality.

My point is not that rules do nothing. My point is that a sign or a policy saying nobody is supposed to have guns there does not stop the person who already decided to murder people. It mostly tells the ordinary law-abiding person what they are not allowed to do.

The U.S. debate keeps pretending “gun-free zone” is some magic phrase. It is not. If anything, schools and other soft targets need a serious security discussion, not just another slogan.

This is proof that restricted firearm rules don't work. If security at the school were able to carry a firearm, those 8 victims would still be alive.

I agree with this post!

I don’t think “restricted rules don’t work” follows from one awful failure. The hard question is what actually lowers the odds: competent security, locked access points, quicker response, and keeping dangerous people from getting weapons in the first place. Armed guards may be part of that in some places, but it is not a cure-all. #politics