Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Firearm laws in U.S. 'revolting'

Victim's family irate

MONTREAL -- The Newtown school massacre has left a grieving Canadian family, with relatives of one murdered teacher denouncing American gun laws as "revolting."

The grief from last week's shooting has particularly affected the Rousseau family in Quebec's Eastern Townships, which lost a relative.

Several will be travelling to Connecticut for the funeral of Lauren Rousseau, a substitute teacher whose father was born in Quebec.

"The only thing I can express is revulsion and anger," the victim's uncle, Francois Rousseau, told The Canadian Press in an interview from Disraeli, Que.

"It's revolting how easy it is to obtain firearms -- that's what's so infuriating. (The shooter) destroyed so many young lives in just a few minutes."

He and several relatives will be attending the funeral of his brother's daughter.

Rousseau, who died last week at age 30, was born in the U.S. Her Canadian-born father, Gilles Rousseau, told Radio-Canada he wanted to see his daughter's body but was informed by authorities that it would not be possible.

"They told me, 'You can't see (the body),' " Gilles Rousseau told Radio-Canada. "Because most people he shot, it was two or three shots in the face, point-blank."

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 19, 2012 A8

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