Why did the Mounties seize High River guns?
Firearm owners may be justified in raising hell the rcmp left itself wide open to suspicions officers took advantage
On Friday afternoon, when Mounties responding to the recent major floods in southern Alberta sent out a media release concerning the force’s removal of firearms from flooded-out homes, the tone had changed.
gone were the royal Canadian Mounted Police’s prior references to firearms having been “seized.” Now it was all about Mounties “taking possession” of firearms.
Also absent were all the earlier allusions to the rCMP having taken guns that had been “unsafely stored.” Now it was all about finding firearms that were “in plain view” and the force had “no way of assuring [would] remain secure.”
What hasn’t changed, of course, are the facts of what occurred.
The small town of High river (a tragically apt name in recent weeks), south of Calgary, has been devastated. The 13,000 inhabitants were evacuated and haven’t been allowed back yet. rCMP officers, as part of search and rescue teams, moved through the town after the waters rose, forcing their way into houses to check for survivors, stranded pets and the bodies of anyone who may have perished.
This is all to the good — indeed, it’s part of their duties as first responders. And the emergency declarations in place in southern Alberta certainly gave them the authority to enter private homes without need of a warrant.
But why were they removing firearms?
According to the RCMP’s original version of events, when officers were “seizing” firearms that were stored “unsafely,” they had a plausible explanation, though one that left many (myself included) uncomfortable. The RCMP left itself wide open to suspicions that while engaged in “search and rescue” operations, officers also took advantage of the access rights granted by the state of emergency to have a little bit of a look around at what people get up to inside their homes.
even if that was the case, it would still be legal to take guns stored unsafely.
The Firearms Act lays out pretty clear guidelines for what constitutes safe storage of a firearm. Non-restricted guns, typically hunting rifles and shotguns, are the most common firearms in Canada, and must be stored unloaded and separate from ammunition. They must also be disabled either by a locking device, such as a trigger lock, or by removing critical mechanical components.
If a police officer, engaged in legitimate rescue operations, discovered a firearm that was not stored in accord- ance with those provisions, there is legal justification for seizing it, just like there would be for drugs or other contraband.
But what about guns stored in full compliance with the law inside a flooded home? Would an unloaded rifle with its bolt removed, or an unloaded shotgun with a trigger lock, also be “taken possession” of ?
The RCMP in High river claims there was no specific order given. It was left to the discretion of officers to decide whether firearms encountered during top-to-bottom searches of flooded homes were “safe.”
Corporal darrin Turnbull told the National Post as officers swept houses for survivors or abandoned pets, necessarily checking closets and under beds in that process, they would find firearms, and decide in the heat of the moment whether it was safe to leave them there.
There’s a certain logic to that, and given the broad authority granted by emergency declarations, such actions would almost certainly be legal. But you can’t blame gun owners for being suspicious.
Cpl. Turnbill reported many firearms were left scattered about where their owners dropped them as they fled the sudden rise in water levels. you can understand a police officer who finds a stack of guns next to an open front door might feel they’re better off in a police lockup. Fair enough.
But what about a trigger-locked gun on the top shelf of a bedroom closet in a locked house? There’s no threat to public safety there. If guns were taken in those kinds of situations, too, it won’t feel like the RCMP did you a favour by securing your gun. It will feel like it seized your lawful, and lawfully stored, property when it saw the chance to do so.
We won’t know the details until residents are able to return home and discover exactly how thorough the RCMP’s gun-removal efforts were. But if individual officers were waging their own little gun-clearing campaign under the cover offered by an unfolding disaster, High river residents — and lawful Canadian gun owners everywhere — will be entirely justified in raising hell.