MSNBC’s Canada Shooting Coverage: Gun Control Gets Raised in 3, 2, …

Within the first hour of news coverage following the shooting/probable terrorist attack up in Canada on Wednesday, MSNBC predictably scrambled to try and find a link to — you guessed it — gun control laws.

“How are these guys getting, apparently, double barreled rifles?” asked Tamron Hall.

“There’s an ongoing debate in Canada about the Harper government’s attempt to loosen gun control laws,” answered Lee-Anne Goodman of The Canadian Press. “So that’s going to become part of the conversation, I imagine, in the days following this.”

There’s only one problem with this logic, of course. Canada’s gun control restrictions happen to be far more strict than the ones in the United States. If anything, this undermines the gun control crowd’s rationale, since it shows that tighter rules don’t necessarily prevent mass shootings.

It’s a fact that fellow MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell needed to be reminded of roughly one hour later:

“Canada has more strict gun laws than the United States, especially with their handguns,” explained NBC law enforcement analyst Jim Cavanaugh. “There’s a lot of hunting and rifle shooting, certainly, but the gun laws are more strict there than they are in the United States. We’re more of an open system with our firearms, so they have more controls.”

Andrea’s response?

Next topic, please!