Newly-released statistics regarding firearm-related fatalities in Canada, particularly involving young people, point to a real and growing need for more to be done to prevent such incidents.
And while there is probably little appetite for the reopening of the gun-ownership debate in Canada, the vast majority of Canadians would probably welcome steps that would keep more young people safe.
Whether politicians at the federal and provincial levels are prepared to take a leadership role in addressing the problem remains anyone's guess.
What is known is that preventing firearm-related injuries and deaths is in everyone's best interest.
According to the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS), firearm-related incidents remain a "significant and preventable cause of death in Canada, both in the general population and in youth."
The society says in one recent five-year period, 3,688 Canadians, including 635 young people age 24 and under, died from firearm injuries. Of all deaths involving young people age 15 to 24, more than 90 per cent were young males.
"Children and adolescents have developmental characteristics that put them at increased risk for firearm injury," CPS officials said. "While adolescents have more advanced cognitive capacity than children, they remain vulnerable to injury because they have incompletely developed self-regulation skills, such as impulse control."
The CPS is recommending that governments should immediately legislate stricter controls on the acquisition, transport, ownership and storage of firearms.
Specifically, the society says the federal government should take measures to reduce the illegal importation of firearms into Canada, impose tighter restrictions on semi-automatic firearms, and conduct more research on risk factors for targeted school violence.
Firearms remain useful and necessary tools on farms and ranches, including in this region.
As such, any government efforts to reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths among Canadian young people should not, wherever possible, unduly restrict the lawful use of guns in the agriculture industry.
Nevertheless, with young Canadian males now more likely to die in gun-related incidents than in fires, falls, drownings or from cancer, it is in everyone's best interest to find solutions.
Dan Singleton is the Mountain View Gazette editor.
