Canada’s strict gun controls—including complete bans on many firearms, the licensing of owners with requirements for “character references,” and a license renewal process that requires background checks every five years—all failed to prevent Sunday night’s terrorist attack on a Quebec mosque.
As Breitbart points out, Sunday’s attack in Canada was similar to recent attacks in Europe where, despite gun bans and other onerous anti-gun laws, terrorists have still been able to commit heinous crimes with firearms—against populations who were largely disarmed.
In 2015, terrorists shot and killed 12 people in Paris, then opened fire in another attack that killed 130 people in November. Last July, a gunman killed nine innocents in Munich, despite Germany’s strict gun controls. As former Interpol general secretary Ronald Noble said of Kenya’s Westgate Mall massacre—which also occurred in a gun-free zone—“Ask yourself: If that was Denver, Colo., if that was Texas, would those guys have been able to spend hours, days, shooting people randomly?”