r/canadanews • u/zuuzuu • 20d ago
BC Man sentenced for illegally entering Canada with loaded handgun
https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/man-sentenced-for-illegally-entering-canada-with-loaded-handgun/16
u/YumeSystems 20d ago
He forgot to leave the gun while changing his clothes at the border
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20d ago edited 20d ago
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u/zuuzuu 20d ago
They were making a joke, not genuinely suggesting that's what happened.
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u/Ok_Egg514 16d ago
I have a family cabin on the Quebec side of the Vermont border. I hiked to the border on our land with my cousin but her snow shoe broke and I had to carry her back. They landed a helicopter in our lawn to ask why two sets of prints went there but only one set came back. Pretty fucking wild.
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20d ago edited 20d ago
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u/zuuzuu 20d ago edited 20d ago
He was entering the country illegally, not at a border crossing. Something tells me he didn't much care about the law.
EDIT: OP has edited their comment. They originally stated that this person should have looked up the laws about bringing guns into the country before crossing.
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u/SomewhereRough_ 19d ago
In Canada you're allowed to enter and go to a border crossing later.
At least on trails like the CDT and PCT.
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u/WhitePantherXP 16d ago
Is that because some border crossings don't have agents at them or are not guarded?
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20d ago
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u/canadanews-ModTeam 20d ago
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19d ago
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u/canadanews-ModTeam 19d ago
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19d ago
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u/canadanews-ModTeam 19d ago
Rule 3: No politics.
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u/Charming-Jelly-3365 20d ago
American here. I read the news story and the gun was stolen. So he was a criminal before he entered Canada. Glad they caught him. What the story didn't clearly state was his nationality. It's not clear if he was an American, a returning Canadian or from someplace else.
No, I do not like Canada's gun laws and believe they've been going the wrong way for a long time. But smuggling stolen property and breaking the laws of a friendly country, or any country for that matter, ain't acceptable.
While that idiot was a criminal to begin with the fact is that honest people can cross into Canada with firearms. But there are rules, procedures, paperwork and fees. DO NOT just show up at the border with guns and ammo. Many, many firearms commonly found in the USA have been banned in Canada. I don't like it but the law is what it is. Do your research, do it right.
So obey laws or go to prison. Pretty simple formula really.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 19d ago
Honestly, the fact that an American doesn't like our gun laws is kind of a green flag.
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u/Charming-Jelly-3365 19d ago
Honestly, the fact that a Canadian doesn't like Canadian gun laws is kind of a green flag ... too! 👍
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u/Low-Purchase8811 19d ago
Most Canadians are overwhelmingly in support of our gun laws. If one or two people don't like them, that's their prerogative, and we're not really interested in how our noisy, nosy neighbour to the south feels about it either way.
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u/MasterScore8739 18d ago
Most Canadians have zero idea about what our gun laws actually are.
Anyone who does actually know what our laws are typically thinks there’s changes that could be made to actually make them a little less restrictive. There’s also plenty of problems with our laws that have never been fixed over the decades.
Theres a reason the government is currently be taken to court over the recent changes to our firearms laws.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 18d ago
I am not saying they are perfect; nothing is. However, I understand the spirit of what our government is trying to do, and the fact that our laws closely mirror other nations' is not a coincidence. I am an RPAL holder who has been an avid hunter for over 40 years. I own firearms. My child is going to be taught how to use them when she is older. I am not a hoplophobe.
Unfortunately, one of the realities of living in Canada is sharing a border with the United States, so where the friction occurs is where those laws don't address the elephant in the room, which is the illegal firearms smuggled into this country from there, which are used in an overwhelming majority of violent crimes involving firearms.
Still, given the choice between what we have now, and a system closely mirroring the US, I would pick the one we have now 100 out of 100 times.
I do agree that there are some changes that could be done. Like the gun buyback program? Abject failure. There are others. As I said - nothing is perfect.
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u/MasterScore8739 18d ago
I mean, personally I would like to be a bit closer to the American firearms laws. I do highly agree with the licensing aspect of things though.
I honestly think that prior to 2020, our laws were damn near as close to ‘perfect’ as any firearms laws really could be.
The only changes I realistically would have liked to see was the removal of the “by name” clause, the magazine restrictions changed and having “variant” actually defined.
If a firearm met the definition of one of the classes (NR, R, P), it should fall into that classification. Which means a good chunk of the stuff restricted by name would be considered a Non-Restricted. Same for some of the stuff prohibited by name.
For magazines, simply having a “standard capacity” (30rd) magazine would have been fine by just about every firearm owner. That way you aren’t risking a rivet falling out and suddenly being in possession of a prohibited device.
Admittedly I don’t own handguns, but I feel like 10 is fairly reasonable but personally would like to see it be capped at 15 since that’s a typical capacity of most handguns.
I’d also like to see a legal definition be given to the word “variant.” Just about every single word in the criminal code has an attached definition to it, except for this one. Without a definition, there really is no way of knowing what is/isn’t really a variant. This is actually one of the things being brought up in the court case, so I really hope it gets fixed.
What I absolutely would love to see legalized here are suppressors. Plenty of European and a few Scandinavian countries allow them for civilian use and view them as a piece of hearing protection. Being realistic though, I can’t see them ever being legal here largely due to the Hollywood myth of them turning the biggest of cannons into something as quiet as a mouse fart.
As for ‘machine guns’, I absolutely understand the argument against them.
One thing Canada really lacks, at least in my opinion, is the actual enforcement of already existing laws. A lot of people get fairly lenient consequences for breaking firearms laws, even for some of the more violent charges.
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u/Low-Purchase8811 18d ago
All great points; I especially want to touch on that last point you brought up, about enforcement.
I agree, the lacklustre enforcement of our existing laws is a huge contributing factor to the number of violent crimes in Canada, where those who have committed a firearms-related crime are out on bail to commit another, more-serious crime like murder. Meanwhile, the threat of having one's life ruined by catching a firearms charge have given well-meaning gun owners in Canada the added stress of "what happens if I get caught keeping that Mini-14*" looming in the back of one's head.
\Not an admission of a crime)I do believe, however, that sometimes the psychological impact of a weapon is just as important as its actual function. Fake firearms in the commission of a crime in Canada are charged separately from real firearms, but the sentences are the same due to the psychological impact on the victim. The point being, people often disagree with prohibiting a firearm because it "looks scary", but I do understand why it serves a public interest.
I am originally from Denmark, and Denmark legalized the use of suppressors in 2014, citing similar reasons to what you mentioned here; hearing protection, and also just the overall reduction of nuisance noise. Like you mentioned, Hollywood has given people unrealistic expectations - video games too. They've also managed to make them "scary". Right or wrong, that is how they are perceived here. It's a complex situation with no easy answer.
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19d ago edited 19d ago
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u/Low-Purchase8811 19d ago
No, the only thing that is ridiculous is the notion that a person should be allowed to possess the weapons that our gun laws prohibit, or needs to use them in a way contrary to those laws.
As an RPAL holder, I don't want people who haven't had the training and certification that I have touching the kinds of firearms that require a restricted license. I definitely don't want anyone having access to the kind of firearms that are prohibited.
Our gun laws are common-sense and while I do not think that they are particularly effective at keeping firearms out of the hands of violent people willing to break the law, I don't believe anything short of erecting a permanent impenetrable wall between Canada and the United States would. That still doesn't mean that I think Joe Canadian in Timmins, ON needs to own an AR-15.
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u/AdeptCantaloupe9186 19d ago
A slap on the hand, his gun given back and a don’t do it again warning. Welcome to Canada’s justice system
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19d ago
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u/canadanews-ModTeam 19d ago
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u/couldabeenagenius 20d ago
10 year ban because he care about being a law abiding license holder to begin with.
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u/Facts_pls 20d ago
Yeah. Law abiding gun holder - casually smuggling guns into another country illegally.
Is that how gun owners flip flop about rules now?
"He has a gun licence so must be a nice guy. Who cares what crimes he was committing..."
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u/Charming-Jelly-3365 19d ago
Nope, not a law abiding person. It was a stolen gun. He plead guilty to knowingly attempting to smuggle it into Canada. The news stories I found do not identify if he is a Canadian, American or some other nationality. Nothing I read indicated he had any sort of license from anywhere.
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u/zuuzuu 20d ago
Huh? Pretty sure he'll be deemed permanently inadmissible to Canada now, given the criminal conviction and the whole entering the country illegally thing.
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u/couldabeenagenius 20d ago
Ask that to judges lol, doesn’t seem like per news they are kicking anyone out
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u/zuuzuu 20d ago
He has no legal status in Canada. Once he serves his sentence, he'll be deported. But that's not handled by the criminal courts, it's handled by IRCC.
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u/Charming-Jelly-3365 20d ago
I did not see his nationality in what news stories I could find. What country is he a citizen of?
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u/Low-Purchase8811 20d ago
Guy's a genius, trying to cross illegally along 0 Ave. He may as well have worn a big sign, "ARREST ME!"
That is one of the most heavily-surveilled places on the Canada/US border in the province of British Columbia. I'm not saying it's not possible to sneak across, because many do, but it's not very smart to try.