Canada –-(Ammoland.com)- Way back on January 10, 2018, news broke of a Winnipeg police officer who lost a magazine filled with ammunition for his service weapon. Pistol magazines are difficult to find once they fall out of an officer’s duty belt. They are black plastic, less than 15 cm long and 5 cm wide and are hard to see in low vegetation, even in broad daylight.
One aspect of the story is not that a police officer lost a handgun magazine, which happens. Not often, but it happens. The thing is, the officer has no idea where he lost the magazine, let alone when. The best estimate is December 28, 2017, and January 2, 2018 –– six full days before the officer noticed the magazine was missing.
Is it disturbing that police and news outlets told anyone who found the lost magazine and ammunition to bring it to the nearest police station?
This is the Winnipeg police counseling citizens to commit a crime, as the missing police pistol magazine is a prohibited device under Canadian law. Possession of a prohibited device is a crime under Section 92(3) of the Criminal Code of Canada, punishable, on first offense, by “imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years.”
Would police charge a person with possessing a prohibited device if they are returning a lost police magazine? Almost definitely not, but a ten-year prison term is a big chance to take, even if the odds are only 1 percent. One would be better to stand beside the lost item and call the police to retrieve it themselves. If you do not possess the prohibited device, you cannot be charged. Erring on the side of caution is probably the smartest move.
Of course, this also begs the question: if the item is so innocuous that police would advise citizens, without firearms licenses, to physically pick it up and deliver it to the nearest police station, is it really so dangerous it must be prohibited? Ah, you say, it must be inserted in a pistol. But still, nothing happens. Of course, a person has to pull the trigger, right? So really, the danger is in the person, not the pistol, and certainly not the magazine. So why is it prohibited and a mere 10 round mag is a non-regulated gun part? Are only the rounds over 10 dangerous? These are really stupid laws.
Just a few days ago, another Winnipeg police officer lost a magazine for his service pistol. This time, thankfully, the officer noticed almost immediately, and reported the loss within 3 hours of it happening, between 10 p.m. February 4 and 1 a.m. February 5, 2018.
Once again, police and media asked anyone who found the magazine to return it to the nearest police station.
We advise erring on the side of caution. If you find the missing magazines and ammunition, call the police non-emergency line and give them the location of the lost items. Let police retrieve them instead.
Sources:
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/gun-magazine-ammunition-lost-1.4480733
- https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-98-462/FullText.html
- https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-92.html
- https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/a-second-police-officer-loses-ammunition-magazine-472803233.html
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I was a Correctional Officer for 14 years and when you were working an armed post you always checked to see if all of the equipment was there before you took over that post from the other officer. You counted every bullet, checked the guns and never let them go before all was accounted for. Missing ammo, keys or other things were your fault if you took that post without checking. It was hard to explain why you didn’t do your job before taking over the post. I once found a speedloader with ammo in it laying on the ground… Read more »
even when i check my pistol every night, and again when i wake up for the day to begin, i have NEVER lost a magazine or any assorary.
people get CARELESS, AND IT CAN GET THEM KILLED PERIOD.
i am NOT PERFECT NO ONE IS, BUT IT’S A INGRAINED HABIT I LEARNED AS A MARINE IN COMBAT YOU ALWAYS DO AN EQUIPMENT CHECK, ALWAYS.
You mean to tell me you’ve never awakened to find one of your magazines in the refrigerator, having a snack of some lunch meat? Sorry, I just find that really hard to believe!
That has to be embarrassing to lose part of your equipment that could be a life or death matter. Is the guy numb that he couldn’t feel something was missing? It seems someone would be reaming him a new one for dereliction of duty and, possibly, putting a citizen, or I mean subject, at risk.
If you see a police pistol magazine, do they offer free counseling?
We advise erring on the side of caution. If you find the missing magazines and ammunition, call the police non-emergency line and give them the location of the lost items. Let police retrieve them instead.
NO, CALL THE EMERGENCY NUMBER – THAT THING IS EVIL AND DANGEROUS!
If my partner was walking around without a mag in his weapon or an otherwise unloaded weapon he would have hell to pay. I mean real hell. Each of us rely on the weapons being cocked and locked and I mean EVERYONE. I used to tell my trainees if ever get injured because you surrendered your weapon and I survive “I will KILL you when I get out of the hospital”. If I die my wife will kill you. Yes I was in shootings and I survived unscathed.
You are the kind of a scum cop that deserves to be killed.
Ever been in a shootout? Ever been with an incompetent partner when your life absolutely depended on it?
@Andy Buckmichael, Comments that directly subject a specific person to inimical characterizations are libelous. I suggest that you look at your key ring to see all that you could loose.
I suggest that you shut up and dribble.
@Andy Buckmichael, that is the thanks that I get for giving you free legal advice. Maybe I should have advised circle8 !
“Only police can be trusted with guns! Because they have all that training!” And apparently they really believe that a lump of inanimate metal and plastic can jump right up off the ground and slaughter people, all by itself.
People (gov. bosses) usually open their mouth first to pass another ANTI -WHAT EVER bill BUT NEVER OPEN MIND TO WHAT it means after it gets passed buy another group of gov . bosses. Stupidity ……….
Yup. Does government want to protect us or themselves? I’m still smarting after having my (potentially lethal?) radar detector confiscated by Canadian police as I was passing from Michigan to New York. At least I did not have to go to jail.
Police shouldn’t be allowed to carry such dangerous items like a magazine. A magazine falls into the wrong hands and someone might get killed.
Amen, Brother. Preach!
@PonyPlayer, Yes,if even one life were saved, etc. etc. But Winnepeg is in Canada so I have no standing to complain.
The missing mags are probably stuck between their seats and the center consoles in their cruisers. Everything gets lost there! Or maybe they slid down into a saddlebag if they’re mounties?
We had officers who carried mags sideways and lost them. Those of us that carried them vertical never lost one.
6 days before he checked his combat load-out? Good thing it wasn’t his gun he lost. By the way, if this guy in the picture is the one who lost it somebody should tell him to get that equipment off the back of his belt. Spinal injuries occur when police, or small of the back carriers, fall or are pushed, backwards on their equipment.
Amen, especially those who carry handcuffs in the center of the back. That’s resulted in spinal surgery, later in life, for quite a few officers and Federal Agents.
As for the magazines (he says with a smile), if they are so very dangerous for the average law abiding citizen to even possess, I suggest immediate destruction upon discovery thereby eliminating any possibility of them harming anyone. A sledgehammer should do the job along with an anonymous call where to retrieve them! 🙂
I would be interested in the punishment he received for misplacing such a dangerous device. In England it is a serious crime to even pick up a round of 22 LR ammo off the street. Of course things aren’t any better in the District of Columbia.
Police are civilians, too.
Just another ignorant useless cop.
bet your keyboard commando self will be the first one to call them is something happens
Maybe if I wanted my dog shot, my child molested, and my possessions stolen. All under the color of the law of course.
As you are a waste of good oxygen…Troll !!
Just another ignorant useless comment.
OR, just another ignorant, useless comment.
Just another ignorant, useless motormouth.
I would first check under his girlfriends couch….thats where I found both of mine….hahahaha
Has he checked under his mattress? That’s where I used to keep my magazines. Now I use the Internet.