Posted on 08/14/2002 3:59:37 PM PDT by RogueIsland
Gun collection seized after fire inspection
By Randy Jones / Crime Reporter
What started out as an attempt to get a storage room in a beautiful Timberlea home cleaned up so basement carpets could be lifted turned into a raid by RCMP officers in flak jackets last week.
"I thought it was quite funny," said a woman who lives at the home.
"The (officer) says, 'Where's your husband?' . . . I had no idea what they were looking for. They asked me if there were any guns in the house. I said there were a few guns and a few bullets. . . . I had not expected all this."
Since Aug. 7, she and her husband have been trying to make sense of what happened the day their grey, two-storey house off Highway 3 next to Governor Lake was stormed by several officers.
A few days earlier, she had asked a fire inspector to come in and inspect the cluttered storage room, hoping it would prompt her 68-year-old husband to clean it up.
Little did she know that the inspector would go through the entire house, discovering an attic and other areas filled with numerous guns and ammunition.
The fire inspector contacted the RCMP.
Armed with a search warrant, Tantallon RCMP officers and a member of the National Weapons Enforcement Support Team found a gun collector's treasure trove.
The haul included seven submachine-guns, 10 semi-automatic pistols, four revolvers, 12 rifles, three shotguns, six pellet rifles, a pellet pistol, enough surplus parts to assemble about 20 Second World War machine-guns, and over 2,000 rounds of ammunition.
Among the gun collection - just a small example of her husband's obsession with collecting - was an MP-40 German Schmeisser submachine-gun, numerous side-loading British Sten submachine-guns, a British .303 Lee-Enfield rifle and at least one pistol with a now-illegal 32-round magazine.
Luckily, officers were dealing with gentle spirits.
"He was very co-operative and there were no hassles whatsoever," an investigator said. "Even though he knows there is a possibility he may be charged, he was still co-operative.
"It's just that he's an avid gun collector. He's not a risk. The neighbours aren't living in fear or anything like that."
The former licensed guide-turned-businessman - who has no criminal history and is still reeling from the raid - says he began collecting guns, and just about anything else, when he was about 14.
"I didn't even know I had the count they came up with."
Over the years, he purchased guns from war veterans, some were given to him and others he bought elsewhere.
Occasionally, he'd sell them. But he said he tried to make sure they always went to good people who he believed didn't have criminal intentions.
"I sold a whack of them. All I was trying to do was build a collection with no outflow of money," he said.
"They are such a part of my past that I don't even dwell on them. The last thing I would ever want to do is go out and get a hunting licence. I don't care if I ever shoot a gun again."
A Halifax Regional Police officer with the weapons enforcement support team, which assists metro officers in firearms cases, is checking how many of the guns are registered.
But, so far, police do not believe the guns are linked to any criminal activity or unsolved crimes.
Police are hoping, however, that the raid serves as a cautionary tale for others with large collections of vintage weapons or other types of unregistered guns.
"In today's climate, with the amount of break and enters that are on the go, guns are a sought-after commodity by the criminal element," the RCMP officer said.
"You could have armed how many people with 40-odd guns. You could have armed a good little gang to do . . . whatever. That only reinforces the need to securely store . . . your firearms and ammunition."
He hopes others with similar collections will voluntarily come forward to ensure that such weapons never fall into the wrong hands.
"Anybody that finds themselves in the position of being in possession of WWII or army surplus, i.e. machine-guns or pistols, should ensure that they have the proper documentation, or they are a licensed collector or they have the proper permits under the new legislation."
Some investigators fear numerous people in the Halifax area have similar collections.
Meanwhile, the raid seems to have prompted the Timberlea man to give up his obsession with collecting. The couple's front yard is now cluttered with large mounds of items waiting to be hauled away.
But parting with his mementoes hasn't been easy. His wife says he was rooting through the dumpster in their front yard the other day trying to reclaim some of his treasures.
RCMP say they're still trying to decide whether to charge the man with unsafe storage of firearms and ammunition. And the support team is pondering whether to charge him with possessing prohibited weapons.
As for the collector, he hopes one day he might be able to get some, if not all, of his guns back.
"Anybody would hate to lose their property, but if it's for the public good," he says, his voice trailing off. "I would just want the same (laws) applied to everyone."
Yeah, very funny.
FMCDH
A few days earlier, she had asked a fire inspector to come in and inspect the cluttered storage room, hoping it would prompt her 68-year-old husband to clean it up.
"Honey, I'm mad at you for not cleaning the clutter, so I'm calling the friggin' Fire Inspector."
Great solution, lady.
If he has a problem with it, we should make him come to the U.S. and go through an airport security checkpoint. We'll see how defiant he is then! We know how to treat 68 year old men here...
What, to be sheep? I think it'd instead serve to prompt men all across the country to have a little "sit down" with their wives.
how do you think this reporter really feels?
No comment.
First and foremost, the wife is an idiot. Lady, what in the world do you think will happen if you start bringing people in to rummage through your house if you have a bunch of contraband in there? You think it might be reported? Duh. And I wonder how funny it'll be if they decide to press charges? Ha. Ha. Hubby can spend his twilight years in the pen. That's a hoot, ain't it honey? But I suppose the storage room is clean now, so that's a plus.
But I just find the tone and the whole situation positively Orwellian. And we're not that far away from it here Second Ammendment or not. We're on the road to a "worker's paradise" fashioned after East Germany. You'll never know who's an agent for the Stazi, er, I mean Operation TIPS- the fire inspector, the cable installation guy, the UPS man, the trash collector or what you might be reported for that would result in the authorities kicking in your door. I don't know that breeding an environment of suspicion and distrust of everyone you meet day to day is actually a net gain to anyone's security.
"You could have armed how many people with 40-odd guns. You could have armed a good little gang to do . . . whatever. That only reinforces the need to securely store . . . your firearms and ammunition."
It seems to me that it actually reinforces the need to securely store any and all of your personal property in the event the authorities decide to break in and confiscate it.
But I'm confused. As far as I can tell, all the stuff that COULD have happened, DIDN'T. Period. If his dingbat wife hadn't called in the fire inspector, he COULD have lived his entire life and never had any issue with the guns, but that's not even considered as a possibile outcome. It wasn't gang members or the mafia or crazed drug dealers or escaped mental patients who kicked in his door and took the guns, it was the police. Admitedly, after the police confiscate the guns they won't be on the street (hopefully), but it doesn't sound like they were there to begin with, so the whole arguement of what could have happend is specious at best. I hate when what could have happened is used as a justification after the fact.
"Anybody would hate to lose their property, but if it's for the public good," he says, his voice trailing off.
I just shudder. It's for the public good...it's for the public good...it's for the public good...it's for the public good...it's for the public good...it's for the public good...it's for the public good...it's for the public good...it's for the public good...it's for the public good...it's for the public good...it's for the public good...
And btw, this is already happening here in this country, right now, courtesy of the Chicago CAGE unit.
On another note, what was the reason for the search warrant? "Just having guns" is NOT sufficient cause for a warrant. If the victim can get himself a decent lawyer and an honest judge, he can probably get the charges thrown out.
But getting a honest judge in the northeast is easier said than done....
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