Pandemic will end but men with guns will keep killing
By
Heather MallickStar ColumnistTue., April 21, 2020
''The reaction to the news was standard. The alleged gunman seemed normal, had a steady job, once made free dentures for a cancer patient, what a guy, same old story.
But he didn’t sound normal to me, or to many other women.
There are always signs. In junior high, he was fascinated by guns. A friend at university said he was unpopular so
she was kind to him and he seemed to settle down.
His high school yearbook said he hoped to join the RCMP. Given that he wore a fake uniform and drove a fantasy cruiser, it became clear that the roots of his obsession had run long and deep.
A neighbour said he had had problems with an ex-girlfriend. He drank heavily and was jealous. He owned at least two refurbished police cars bought at auction. He once burned down a neighbour’s shed. He seems to have initially trained as a mortician though he didn’t seem gentle enough for that profession.
One newspaper initially tweeted, “Nova Scotia mass shooter was a denturist with a passion for policing,” and a more aware generation disagreed. Women want an end to the standard presentation of killers as men with harmless “hobbies,” or enraged by the lockdown, or maddened by a recalcitrant girlfriend.''
''The alleged killer likely planned his rampage, with at least 20 victims in 16 different places. Some people he knew well. One was a female RCMP constable who had the job he had wanted all his life. He cooked his hate for years. What accelerant did he store up for those remarkably fierce fires?
Most important of all, many if not most of his victims, at least at this point, were female. It’s called femicide and we diminish these killings by not highlighting that.
The dead killer was a police wannabe, which is a type. “Often there was no nefarious intent,” one male crime commentator said of those he had encountered. Men tend to see it that way. But
cop fetishism, this need to control, is a huge red flag for women.''
