Fret about the threat, not new RCMP guns

Only in Canada, The Magical Kingdom, could elected officials possibly complain about steps taken to ensure their own safety, following a terrorist attack that sent them scurrying down hallways, hiding under desks and cowering in broom closets.

Even after Zehaf-Bibeau, even after the harrowing after-action reports that emerged this week, some refuse to take security seriously — even as RCAF jets bomb terrorists overseas who would dearly like to inspire a repeat. If it weren’t so irresponsible, it would be laughable.

At issue is the recent “toting” of a submachine-gun, specifically a German-made Heckler & Koch submachine-gun of the kind used by police forces and tactical units the world over, by a member or members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, whose job it is to prevent another homicidal maniac from bursting through the front doors of the Centre Block and shooting up the joint.

Let us pause now to examine to what degree said joint was shot up. It makes for alarming reading. According to the first of two OPP reports, one bullet struck the entryway carpet; four more hit in and around the rotunda, and three more in the Hall of Honour. There were “numerous” impacts on the east wall by the entrance to the Library of Parliament; seven “areas of damage” in the wooden library door; and two bullet impacts in the counter inside the library chamber itself. The place was a shooting gallery.

And, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was shot 31 times before he was stopped, fatally. Again, from the OPP report: “Three were graze or tangential wounds that were on the left side of the body. All of these wounds were noted to be very superficial. Five were superficial perforating wounds that had an entry and exit site. The wound tracks were superficial. Eight were penetrating wounds that had an entry site with the bullet remaining in the body. Fifteen were perforating wounds that had an entry and exit site. Two of these wounds — just two — “would have been rapidly fatal independently” and “several others were potentially independently fatal without prompt medical attention.”

One need not be an expert in police tactics to draw a staggering realization from the juxtaposition of these two sets of data.

Despite that the gunman was not wearing body armour, or pumped up on any drug stronger than alcohol according to the toxicology report, he did not go down until after he’d been hit dozens of times.

One reason for that, as an examination of law enforcement shooting statistics will show, is that handguns in stress situations are notoriously inaccurate. Law enforcement agencies most often train officers to fire at “centre mass,” the torso, because that is the largest target and a bullet wound there is most likely to stop an armed attacker. But even at very close range, even with training, handguns are inaccurate.

The conclusions we can draw from this are twofold. First, in order that Parliament not become a shooting gallery again, God forbid, any would-be gunman must be stopped before he gets inside. Second, a longbarrelled gun, not a shotgun but a rifle, is the safest weapon for law enforcement to use on the Hill in an emergency, because of its relatively greater accuracy. The Heckler & Koch MP5 is a small, short-barrelled automatic rifle, generally considered accurate up to 100 metres or so, if the user is well-trained.

The second OPP report, a critique of the RCMP’s security posture, advocates something with an even longer barrel.

“I just think the message it sends to tourists, to schoolchildren, to citizens, to foreigners, is one of an armed encampment as opposed to a house of democracy,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May fretted to my colleague at the Ottawa Citizen, Lee Berthiaume. Other MPs are said to be uncomfortable, as is at least one Senate Liberal. Hands are being wrung.

Good lord. There were serious, potentially lethal security breaches on the Hill in 1966, 1989 and 1997, one of the OPP reports notes. In late 2009, Greenpeace activists somehow reached the roof of the West Block. No harm was done but the incident revealed a cartoonish lack of security.

At that time, the CBC reported that MP5s were to be introduced for Mounties guarding the Hill. They were made available but kept out of public view. It’s not clear to what extent any were handy last Oct. 22. That may have been moot: all the security forces on and near the Hill that day were unprepared for what happened. It is a miracle, these OPP reports make clear, that there wasn’t greater loss of life.

Bemoaning the sight of a gun, any gun, in the hands of a policeman or -woman on Parliament Hill, under these circumstances, is beyond ludicrous. MPs and Senators with delicate sensibilities should remember what occurred on the War Memorial that day, and what was very narrowly avoided in the Centre Block, and be grateful security is being shored up. It is long overdue.

If it weren’t so irresponsible, it would be laughable