PM calls for return of firearms

The Prime Minister’s Office entered a dispute Friday between residents of floodravaged High river and the RCMP over the seizure of firearms from homes in the evacuated southern Alberta town.

The guns should be returned to their owners, said a spokesman for Stephen Harper. “We expect that any firearms taken will be returned to their owners as soon as possible,” said press secretary Carl Vallee, who added that the Mounties should be dealing with more pressing matters.

“We believe the RCMP should focus on more important tasks such as protecting lives and private property.”

The Mounties said Thursday they had seized guns from homes in the flood zone and put them in a safe place. The surprise move angered some High river residents, who have been anxious to return to their homes to assess flood damage.

High river resident Brenda Lackey was “furious” that disaster relief resources had been allocated to facilitate the search of people’s homes.

“It’s about the invasion of everyone’s private property in here. There was absolutely no need for this,” said Ms. Lackey.

“They tell us on one hand we don’t have to worry about anybody in our homes, that there was no looting or any- thing because they are protecting our property, but on the other hand they say they want to take it out because they were valuable and they had to safeguard it. So which is it?”

An rCMP official said only guns that were not properly stored were removed from homes. Police officers were inspecting several homes to look for flood victims, pets and anything that might pose a threat to returning residents.

“When situations like this occur, pets and children hide. We had to give homes a very thorough inspection, in a life and death situation. That means looking under beds and into closets. did we open drawers? No. The officers’ lives were on the line, too. We didn’t have time for that,” said Cpl. darrin Turnbull.

Cpl. Turnbull said he didn’t have a firm count on the number of firearms removed from High river but denied social media reports that it was in the “thousands.” He estimated the number was in the hundreds.

Officers were not given an official directive to remove “all” firearms, said Cpl. Turnbull. It was left to individual officers, as a member of a search and rescue team, to decide whether the guns in any given home were safe.

Firearms, when taken, were catalogued by residence and will be returned to their owners “as soon as is practically possible.”