Opinion
Canada – -(AmmoLand.com)- Hundreds of firearms are stolen from police every year and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ( RCMP ) no longer tracks them. While civilians routinely face charges for improper storage, police officers don’t.
Canadian police love to blame criminal shootings on “domestically-sourced” firearms. What they don’t tell us is many of those “domestically-sourced” guns are coming from police cruisers.
Worse, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police don’t even keep track of how many guns are stolen from police.
August 8, 2018, Saskatoon, SK. A man broke into a parked RCMP cruiser and stole a police-issued handgun and ammunition.
May 7, 2018, Calgary, AB. A thief broke into a Calgary Police Service recruit’s truck and stole her gear bag, including a locked case containing her training pistol and three (prohibited) 15-round magazines.
April 26, 2018, Kenora, ON. A man stole a rifle, an AR-15, from a marked Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) cruiser.
April 4, 2015, Calgary, AB. A thief broke into a Calgary police constable’s personal vehicle and stole his Colt C8 semi-automatic patrol carbine (a politically correct name for an AR-15) and two spare (prohibited) magazines.
“There is no reason in my mind why an officer would take this firearm home,” Calgary Police Superintendent Kevan Stuart told Global News shortly after the theft.
“Sometime after Oct. 23, 2013.” A man stole an OPP-issued Sig Sauer P229 handgun and three (prohibited) magazines from the trunk of a detective’s vehicle. The detective has no idea when the gun was stolen but did not report the theft until December 12, 2013. While Ottawa police notified the OPP about the stolen gun 17 days earlier, they did not start their investigation until the detective reported it.
Thankfully, in most cases when police firearms are stolen, nobody is injured –– but that’s not always the case.
On October 24, 2015, a man broke into an RCMP vehicle parked in Winnipeg RCMP Sgt. Christopher McCuen’s driveway stole his loaded duty handgun and shot 16-year-old Calli Vanderaa in the chest. She recovered from the serious physical damage but still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
Winnipeg police said they “found no grounds” to charge Sgt. McCuen with improper storage of a weapon.
Calli Vanderaa filed a negligence lawsuit against McCuen and the RCMP for her pain and suffering.
In their motion to have the lawsuit dismissed, McCuen and the RCMP claimed they do not owe Calli Vanderaa and her father “a prima facie private law duty of care.”
This suggests they believe:
- they don’t have a legal duty or are immune from the legal requirement to safely store police firearms, and
- they aren’t responsible if their improperly stored firearms are stolen and used to in violent crimes
Access to Information (ATIP) requests shows 124 firearms and other weapons were lost or stolen from the RCMP from January 1 to June 3, 2015.
RCMP documents obtained by Dennis Young in 2011 showed 428 firearms were lost or stolen from our police forces. In 2017 he repeated his information request.
The RCMP said they no longer keep track of them.
Sources:
· https://dennisryoung.ca/2017/07/18/rcmp-unable-to-find-records-on-guns-stolen-from-police-forces-agencies-in-canada/
· https://dennisryoung.ca/2016/05/31/rcmp-release-list-of-124-firearms-they-lost-or-had-stolen-from-them/
· https://saskatoonpolice.ca/news/2018607
· https://dailyhive.com/calgary/calgary-police-service-gear-stolen-training-gun
· https://www.trcctb.com/2018/04/27/kenora-opp-gun-stolen-arrest-made/
· https://globalnews.ca/news/1922229/patrol-rifle-stolen-out-of-calgary-police-members-car/
· https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/opp-takes-weeks-to-investigate-gun-stolen-from-open-trunk-of-officers-car
· https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/christopher-mccuen-stolen-police-gun-shooting-1.4419372
· https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/rcmp-officer-charged-teen-shot-with-gun-1.3733053
· https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/mountie-gun-lawsuit-defence-calli-vanderaa-1.3712475
· https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/cop-denies-duty-to-safeguard-gun-374084311.html
About Canadian Shooting Sports Association:
The Canadian Shooting Sports Association is the voice of the sport shooter and firearms enthusiast in Canada. Our national membership supports and promotes Canada’s firearms heritage, traditional target shooting competition, modern action shooting sports, hunting, and archery. We support and sponsor competitions and youth programs that promote these Canadian heritage activities.
For more information, visit the website at www.cdnshootingsports.org.
I rode for years with a retired Mountie, injured on the job and mustered out early. He was an old school Canadian LEO, a big rangy fellow, which meant they kept the peace, period, and were less hamstrung by the PC trends that have taken over law enforcement in Canada (and here!). Those same trends have resulted in the relaxation of hiring standards in order to have a “rainbow” police force, such as 5′ 4″ 110 pound females, minorities barely knowledgeable of Canada’s history, you know the picture. Consequently, before the PC infestation, the RCMP were much more respected by… Read more »
Well whaddya speck ennyway?
Draconian gun and gun storage laws for the mundanes
No restrictions whatever on the Only Ones.
Complacency on the part of the Only Ones such that they are borderline careless with their firearms
Opportunistic citizens not wanting to comply with all the laws regarding arms, yet wanting them at low cost; off books,
THIS is the inevitable playout.
This point’s to the saying when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns. I have been telling anti gun leftist for over 30 years that if they ban guns, but the police have guns that I will have a gun. They always say no you wont they will be outlawed. To which I say again if the police have them then I will also. they never get the implication. You will never get rid of firearms if people want are need them.
“Only police can be trusted with guns”
“Because they have all that training”
I think the statement, “not my country, not my problem,” is being said without really thinking about the full meaning It is our problem. While the media and polititions have our attentions focusing on our southern boarders, the illegals are walking across our northern boarders from who knows where. Just my opinion.
Bad guys want guns, They WILL get guns, As for the police not tracking their missing weapons, If it where “John Q. Public” you can bet they would have new living quarters.
Another example of do as I say not as I do=Liberal Attitude
Sounds like Keystone Cops and Dudley Doright are less responsible than average Canadian citizens. Seems like whatever disease they have is starting to infect our high levels of Federal law enforcement. The clowns think that they are above the law. Time to purge the ranks of these scum before it filters down to the worker bees.
Canada has never developed a “responsible gun culture” but until their recent liberal/socialist governments attracting criminal elements refugees they have not had “crime problems.”
So then RCMP recruits from people who have no security gun culture.
They also do not have a Bill of Rights for their subjects.
Canada needs a conservative prime minister/president,this is all stupid rubbish designed by liberal idiots who want to destroy Canada.