Mass shootings are events that make no sense, no matter how hard we try to understand them. Even among mass shootings, the Nova Scotia shooting makes even less sense. We do know that 22 people lost their lives, plus the shooter, in a 13-hour period Saturday night and Sunday morning.
16 separate crime scenes over 100 kilometres. Some victims with ties to the shooter; some random. The situation started out in Portapique and ended in Enfield. The shooter from Dartmouth, near Halifax, wearing a RCMP uniform and driving a replica police cruiser.
The RCMP chose Twitter to get the word out to Nova Scotians instead of the provincial emergency management alert system. Several relatives tell stories of how they would have changed their behaviour had they known.
The story of RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson as inspiration to young girls in Nova Scotia and even the Netherlands. The story of a man hiding in the woods after the shooter killed his brother. The family of 3, including a 17-year-old girl, who were killed. The woman who was pregnant but the couple hadn't told anyone.
A mass shooting in a pandemic means people can't physically get together to mourn. That is what Nova Scotians would do in normal circumstances.
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The Nova Scotia shooting accounted for the most deaths of any mass shooting in Canada. The mass shooting at Ecole Polytecnhique in Montréal accounted for the deaths of 14 women and injured 10 women and 4 men.
The 30th anniversary of the shootings was acknowledged in Montréal last December. The recounting from those who survived were absolutely heartbreaking.
People who categorize the mass shootings but both are very tragic.
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I have dreamed of driving a car all around the province from Yarmouth to Cape Breton, Halifax to Digby. The parts of Nova Scotia I have seen have been wonderful. My heart goes out to all the victims and their loved ones. Hopefully, they will get as much help as they can under the circumstances and a chance to celebrate those lives when the pandemic has subsided.
photo credit: Google maps/CNN
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