Every so often, I try to explain American politics to the good Canadians who read Prairie Dog, a great alternative weekly up in Regina. In this week's Prairie Dog, I maybe overstep my bounds as American explainer. I try to offer them some advice on gun violence:

I know you’re still reeling from the June 4 Moncton shootings, and maybe an American offering sympathy and support to Canadians on the issue of gun violence feels like a drug dealer showing up at the funeral of a teenaged customer who overdosed. But I also know that we share the same frustrations. After all, your Conservative government scrapped the firearm registry that was established after a Canadian man, possessed by the same hatred and misogyny as our Isla Vista shooter, murdered 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique. I also read the Canadian Sport Shooting Association’s claims that Moncton was primarily a mental health issue and not a gun issue, and to me that sounds like the kind of bullshit, equivocating faux-conversations that happen in the U.S. after every gun massacre. Of course governments should help care for people with mental health problems. But governments should protect us from guns, too.

I hope you'll go read the whole thing. Even if you don't like my writing, the piece is topped with a beautiful illustration by Nigel Hood that you should definitely check out.