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.
Thomas W. / keep the receipts