How common is gun ownership in Canada?
Nine people, including the gunman, were killed in an explosion at a high school in western Canada. This was one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country's recent history.
According to CNN, mass shootings are rare in Canada, a country with much stricter gun control laws than the United States, and school shootings on this scale are almost unheard of.
According to an analysis by Statistics Canada based onAccording to police data from the Unified Crime Reporting program in both countries, in 2023, 38% of homicides in Canada were gun-related, while the figure in the US was 76%.
Gun ownership in Canada is also far less common than in the United States. According to the Small Arms Research Project, there are 121 guns per 100 residents in the U.S., compared to an estimated 35 guns per 100 residents in Canada.
Tumbler Ridge is a picturesque town nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in western Canada, 680 km from the U.S. border. Therefore, the massacre has left the once close-knit community in shock.
The last major school shooting in Canada occurred in 1989, when a gunman murdered 14 female students at École Polytechnique in Montreal. At the time, the massacre spurred a nationwide re-examination of violence against women and led to stricter gun control laws in Canada.
British Columbia Premier David Eby said at a press conference on February 11: "This is the kind of thing that seems to happen elsewhere, not near our homes. We can't imagine what our community is going through. But I know it's making us all hold our children a little tighter tonight."
This is the second mass murder in British Columbia in less than a year. In April 2025, a man drove an SUV into a crowd at a Filipino street festival in Vancouver, killing 11 people.
Following the tragedy, schools in Tumbler Ridge announced they would be closed for the rest of this week. According to police, the suspect is an 18-year-old woman who dropped out of school about four years ago. The victims were students aged 12 to 13.
Tomorrow (February 13th) has been declared a day of remembrance in the province of British Columbia, Canada.