Got this off the NRA/ILA Web Page. Jim
Thursday, January 23, 2003
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Anti-gun zealots who say owners are paranoid for opposing the federal firearms registry may think twice when they hear Brian Ward's story.
On the evening of Dec. 18, 2002, four officers from the Oceanside RCMP detachment on Vancouver Island entered Ward's home executing a search warrant in an attempt to find a missing firearm.
Keep in mind, this was not a gun that had been used in the commission of a crime. Ward was not under investigation for harming someone else, holding up a bank or for threatening anyone. This was a paperwork problem. The disputed firearm was one of three police contend Ward had in his possession because he was selling them for another man.
Staff Sgt. Luther Cutts said the other man was legally ordered not to own guns because of a domestic dispute. When the prohibition order was signed, the man's three handguns became restricted, unregistered firearms. The RCMP gave him 30 days to sell the handguns to a qualified buyer or forfeit them.
Ward agreed to sell the man's firearms and arrived at the police station to claim them. Unfortunately, Cutts said a junior officer made a mistake and released the guns to Ward before they were properly re-registered.
When the detachment realized its error, the police phoned Ward to straighten it out. That's where the stories diverge. One gun was found to be registered to a new owner in Nanaimo, and although the Firearms Centre wasn't pleased with the sloppy way it was transferred, it was satisfied to leave it with the new owner. Ward handed over the second gun. The third one was missing. Ward claims he never had it, the police say he did.
Because of legal considerations, neither side will elaborate on the discrepancy. However, Cutts said he spoke to Ward at least 15 times to try to get him to return the third gun, to no avail. That's when they went to his home with a search warrant.
If this version of the story is accurate, it suggests Ward is the dumbest criminal in British Columbia. He picks up a restricted firearm from the police station, then refuses to register it and lies about owning it?
That's unlikely. Ward is a veteran firearms instructor and is meticulous about handling restricted guns.
Last year, someone left a handgun in pieces in a box on his doorstep and, not knowing its history, he did an amnesty request (a process where the police run a check on the gun to ensure it hasn't been used in a crime, then allow it to be registered by a new owner). Ward filled out the paperwork, only to discover it was registered to someone else. The firearms officer told him to turn it in to the local RCMP detachment to sort it out.
However, because Ward didn't have transport authorization or the proper paperwork, he asked the RCMP to come to his home to take it away, which they did.
This man is a stickler for the rules.
The week before Christmas, Ward was in Nanaimo shopping when four officers came to his home with a search warrant.
Although his wife, Carol, demanded to stay and oversee the search, the police told her to go outside or she'd be arrested. Then, they searched the home. According to family friend Norm Minard, the RCMP took the couple's firearms, ammunition and registration papers, guns, gun powder, primers and registration papers that Ward had been storing for other people, Ward's diary cataloguing the contact he'd had with police leading up to the search, personal telephone numbers and addresses and gun club papers and records. Then, bizarrely, a bullet collection, books, bullet moulds, a portable search light, certificates, diplomas and even a decorative scrimshaw powder horn hung as artwork on the wall.
It sort of sounds like a scene from the movie Gangs of New York, doesn't it -- where the local authorities show up to "help" and end up looting instead?
The RCMP forwarded the results of their investigation to the B.C. attorney general on Jan. 11, so the Crown could assess the case and decide whether to lay charges.
At first blush, it looks as though they have a lot to go on. Although the RCMP never found the missing third handgun, they claim to have found many guns on the premises that violated safe storage rules.
Minard is skeptical. He says his friend stores all his working firearms in a custom-built gun room with a five-centimetre-thick solid wood door in a metal frame reinforced with steel, secured on two hasps with military locks and door handle. He estimates it would take an hour to break into it.
Ward does have a collection of firearms and bullets on display in his basement: the guns were deactivated and used for instructional purposes. The bullets were also a teaching aid; they contained no primer or powder, and were wired onto display boards mounted on racks on the walls. At least, they were on display until they were confiscated.
So, why did the RCMP take all of these items when they were just looking for a single unregistered handgun?
According to Cutts, it's just like a drug bust where the police are looking for heroin -- if they find cocaine or other drugs, they're obliged to seize them, too.
That's a strange analogy. Heroin and cocaine are still illegal -- long guns, portable search lights and ornamental cow horns are not.
Still think those gun owners are paranoid?
Ward has retained Edmonton lawyer Richard Fritze to help him get his property back.
We'll keep you posted.
smithd@theherald.southam.ca
© Copyright 2003 Calgary Herald
