At least eight people were killed and dozens more injured in one of Canada’s worst mass shootings this week.
Four students aged 12 and 13 and a teacher were shot dead at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia on Tuesday, with the teenage suspect’s mother and 11 year-old step-brother found dead at a home.
The suspect, identified by police as 18 year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, took their own life after the shooting in a remote community of around 2,400 people some 700 miles north east of Vancouver.
“It’s hard to know what to say on a night like tonight,” British Columbia Premier David Eby told reporters in the aftermath of the massacre. “It’s the kind of thing that feels like it happens in other places and not close to home.”
Unlike the United States, school shootings are almost unheard of in Canada and mass shootings in general are also far less common.
Canada has stricter gun laws than the United States, but Canadians can own firearms with a license. Children between the ages of 12 and 17 can obtain a minor’s firearms license after taking a firearms safety course and passing tests.
Overall, the country sees around 0.9 gun related deaths per 100,000 people in the population, compared to 22.4 per 100,000 in Mexico, 21.1 in Colombia, and 6.7 in the United States.
With eight victims, Tumbler Ridge now ranks as one of the deadliest incidents of its kind in recent Canadian history. Below we look at some of the others as the country’s mourns its latest victims of gun violence.
Nova Scotia 2020: Gunman disguised as police officer kills 22
Between 18 and 19 April 2020, Canada was shaken by the killing of 22 people in Nova Scotia, when a gunman embarked upon a 13-hour rampage disguised as a police officer, wielding semi-automatic rifles and pistols.
Gabriel Wortman, a 51-year-old dental technician, shot and killed 13 people over a 40-minute period in Portapique, a seaside community with a population of around 100 people.
A further nine were killed the next day, including a pregnant woman and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer.
Wortman was shot and killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, after what remains the deadliest shooting in Canadian history.
Days after the attack, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban on 1,500 types of assault style weapons. The government would later widen its reforms programme, freezing handgun sales and expanding the initial list.
Canada estimates there are still around 10 million firearms in circulation, including 1.1 million handguns. More than 2.2 million people held gun licences in 2020, according to police.
Edmonton 2014: Eight shot dead including three year-old
On 29 December 2014, 53-year-old Phu Lam shot and killed six adults and two children, aged 3 and 8, in what police called a “senseless mass murder”.
The killer attacked the victims in a house in Edmonton, Alberta, that he owned with his estranged wife, who was one of the victims, along with her parents, sister and a family acquaintance.
He also killed another woman in a different house before driving to a town 20 miles northeast, where he shot himself in a Vietnamese restaurant. Police found his body in the restaurant early the next morning.
The shooting was the deadliest in the history of the city. There had been 27 homicides there in 2013, and 27 in 2014 before the massacre. Police said the shooter had used a stolen 9mm handgun.
Vernon 1996: Nine killed in family massacre
Nine people were killed in April 1996 when Mark Chahal stormed a wedding for his estranged wife’s sister and opened fire, in Vernon, British Columbia.
The shooter had planned the massacre of his relatives, but apparently killed himself when he realised he would not be able to escape undetected, police said at the time.
Chahal’s former partner Rajwar Gakhal, her mother, sisters, brother and the husband of one of the sisters were all killed. Two people were injured.
Neighbour Rick Young recounted how Chahal arrived at the residence in Vernon with two guns, “one in each hand, just like the old Western-style shooters” and started “blasting away”.
Chahal had threatened his wife since their separation in 1995, police said. An inquest into the massacre produced 29 recommendations on improving police procedures, firearms regulations and government policies on spousal abuse.
Montreal 1989: Shooter killed 14 at school
In Canada’s worst school shooting, in December 1989, a gunman killed 14 women and wounded 14 people in a misogynistic attack at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, before committing suicide.
The massacre occurred on 6 December, when 25-year-old Marc Lépine entered the engineering school and opened fire on female students and staff.
He moved through the classrooms, corridors and the cafeteria, gunning down women in the building before turning the gun on himself.
Lépine was armed with a legally purchased Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle and a hunting knife. He had previously been denied admission to the school.
The gunman ranted about feminists ‘ruining his life’ and a friend later told CBC he felt “rejected” by women.
