Canadian soldier killed in accidental shooting in Afghanistan

CBC News

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Sep 26, 2006
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A soldier from Nova Scotia died Tuesday after being accidentally shot while in his tent at the military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, CBC News has confirmed.

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karrie

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Jan 6, 2007
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I can't imagine how that poor family must feel. How odd that it would almost be easier if he was to die in the fighting. To die that way seems so futile for a man who was so passionate about helping to change life for the Afghanis.
 

darkbeaver

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Jan 26, 2006
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The young man was in the local paper here last week, there was a picture of him and his buddies from the county serving in Afghanistan, the town he's from is Stellarton that's about ten k away from me.
 

snfu73

disturber of the peace
You play with guns...it's gonna happen. Everyone gets so SHOCKED when these accidents happen. Surprise! Guess what...all these guns around...all these war toys...all this crap...sooner or later, something is going to happen. Not that I don't feel for the guy or his family....BUT...realistically, come ON...it's a war zone, everyone has a gun, something is going to happen to someone...and USUALLY, unfortunatly, it ends up happening to an innocent Afghan civilian....sooooo....
 

Colpy

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Nov 5, 2005
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You play with guns...it's gonna happen. Everyone gets so SHOCKED when these accidents happen. Surprise! Guess what...all these guns around...all these war toys...all this crap...sooner or later, something is going to happen. Not that I don't feel for the guy or his family....BUT...realistically, come ON...it's a war zone, everyone has a gun, something is going to happen to someone...and USUALLY, unfortunatly, it ends up happening to an innocent Afghan civilian....sooooo....

Oh, don't be silly.

I grew up in a house full of guns before anyone had ever heard of "safe storage". I slept in a room that had a .30-30 in the closet from the time I was about eight or nine.

My family were all gun owners, and users.

I work in a profession in which I carry a gun, and work with about 30 others likewise.

I have been a hunter, and spent a lot of time with hunters, for 40 years.

I have been a member of several gun clubs, and President of one.

I have not known, or heard of, anyone I know EVER being injured accidentally with a firearm. At least I can't remember one off the top of my head. I can remember a couple of close calls......but not one single injury.

Accidents, especially fatal ones, are extremely UNcommon around people versed in the use of firearms.
 

Zzarchov

House Member
Aug 28, 2006
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thats the problem though, so much "gun-phobia" running around alot of kids never learn anything about guns other than TV. To them guns BECOME toys, and stuff like this happens.

Though grow up people, this accident has nothing to do with afghanistan, it was just as likely to happen here, probably more likely since people aren't as on edge.

What we really need to do is teach and use firearms in schools. Would do wonders for our society.
 

MikeyDB

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Jun 9, 2006
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The lesson of course is don't wear a towel around your head and make sure you don't have a tan...you could be mistaken for an infiltrator ....

No showers and no facial hair would help I'm willing to bet...

Friendly Fire is an American video game isn't it???
 

Sean D

Nominee Member
Nov 9, 2006
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This post started out about Canadians losing another brave soldiers. It was not about gun control or the politics of us in Afghanistan. Please have alittle heart, and start a new thread to debate the other subjects!!

He was a brave kid doing what he believed was the right thing to do, for that we should honour him. I do!!
 

MikeyDB

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Jun 9, 2006
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SeanD

You can't expect to achieve any degree of success in life if you ignore the antecedents and dynamics involved in any situation. This young fellow was sacrificed to a "cause" that history tells us is most likely to fail. Military intervention in Afghanistan has a long and troubled history that can't be ignored and for Canada to entertain the notion that the "Coalition of the willing" whether that notion is founded on lies like so much of what America uses to convince people like Stephen Harper (mindless sychophants) or an effort to actually achieve control of the fossil fuel network around the planet in the name of American greed....Canada shouldn't be involved. This unfortunate was a victim and to imagine for a moment that his death will mean anything in the long-term is treating violent amputation with a band-aid.

Would Canadians be served better by sending its young men to die in Afghanistan than it would to destroy the opium trade that has significantly contributed to the tribalism and warfare in Afghanistan?

And yet instead of working toward alternatives, alternatives that would empower the people of Afghanistan to engage in comerce and trade less vulnerable to criminality...we send our people to die under the banner of American hubris....

You send people to fight and kill, you're going to have casualties....
 

snfu73

disturber of the peace
This post started out about Canadians losing another brave soldiers. It was not about gun control or the politics of us in Afghanistan. Please have alittle heart, and start a new thread to debate the other subjects!!

He was a brave kid doing what he believed was the right thing to do, for that we should honour him. I do!!
Oh give me a break...not another one of you folks who wants to tell everyone where they should post when. I have not seen a post in here that does not relate. People are expressing their feelings on the subject. I thought that was what our society was all about...the justification for soldiers to be in other countries in the first place. I remind you...this is a public forum. Besides...the thread starts with an article that is open to interpretation by each of us...if you have a problem with that, then public forums aren't for you.
 

snfu73

disturber of the peace
Oh, don't be silly.

I grew up in a house full of guns before anyone had ever heard of "safe storage". I slept in a room that had a .30-30 in the closet from the time I was about eight or nine.

My family were all gun owners, and users.

I work in a profession in which I carry a gun, and work with about 30 others likewise.

I have been a hunter, and spent a lot of time with hunters, for 40 years.

I have been a member of several gun clubs, and President of one.

I have not known, or heard of, anyone I know EVER being injured accidentally with a firearm. At least I can't remember one off the top of my head. I can remember a couple of close calls......but not one single injury.

Accidents, especially fatal ones, are extremely UNcommon around people versed in the use of firearms.
Uh....I don't think you are getting what I am saying...it's a war zone...it isn't a place where guns are kept in a closet or whatever. Things happen in war zones. Accidents will happen. There are 2000 canadian soldiers and how many others, plus the entire population of afghanistan...there are thousands and thousands of guns...the odds are that someone is going to be killed accidentally by one of these guns at some point and time. It isn't the same as growing up at home with guns.
 

Sean D

Nominee Member
Nov 9, 2006
60
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Oh give me a break...not another one of you folks who wants to tell everyone where they should post when. I have not seen a post in here that does not relate. People are expressing their feelings on the subject. I thought that was what our society was all about...the justification for soldiers to be in other countries in the first place. I remind you...this is a public forum. Besides...the thread starts with an article that is open to interpretation by each of us...if you have a problem with that, then public forums aren't for you.

Yeah, your right with morons like you on public forums--- they are not a place for me!!
 

Curiosity

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Jul 30, 2005
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This post started out about Canadians losing another brave soldiers. It was not about gun control or the politics of us in Afghanistan. Please have alittle heart, and start a new thread to debate the other subjects!!

He was a brave kid doing what he believed was the right thing to do, for that we should honour him. I do!!

SeanD I honor his memory as well.

Well said and thank you - I have given up re the "heart" when it comes to the military and forum members. They only make a note of how many Canadians are killed by "friendly fire - ie: U.S." Anything else doesn't register. I guess it is a good thing the Canadian Forces don't have access to the internet when they are sitting in that hell hole called the ME
 

L Gilbert

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Nov 30, 2006
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You play with guns...it's gonna happen. Everyone gets so SHOCKED when these accidents happen. Surprise! Guess what...all these guns around...all these war toys...all this crap...sooner or later, something is going to happen. Not that I don't feel for the guy or his family....BUT...realistically, come ON...it's a war zone, everyone has a gun, something is going to happen to someone...and USUALLY, unfortunatly, it ends up happening to an innocent Afghan civilian....sooooo....
Funny, I've had firearms around me my whole life. I don't even know anyone personally who has had a mishap, although there have been plenty of p[[prtunities for mishap.
Toys? They are tools. There's a difference. As with any tool, people can abuse them or use them.
Friendly fire in friendly surroundings (I am guessing that the airfield is secure)? I really think "friendly fire" is actually negligent homicide.
 
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EagleSmack

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Feb 16, 2005
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Dunno bout that, but "friendly fire" seems to be becoming a hobby with them.

Oh really? Well it looks like you guys are picking up on that hobby as I don't see them blaming the US Military. That would tell me that it is a fellow Canadian that killed this soldier. I am sure it will be brushed under the rug because freindly fire is usually in conjunction with the US.