An American Caught Smuggling A Handgun Gets Lucky

So an American guy driving a 2011 Corvette takes Washington State’s Anacortes Ferry to where it docks just north of Victoria, BC.  He’s a 43-year-old former deputy sheriff and U.S. army reserve officer, who earned three purple hearts in Iraq. He’s currently waiting to be called to the bar in California and is visiting Vancouver Island with his girlfriend. So far, so good. That is until a Canadian customs officer asks the man if he has any firearms with him. The man answers “no, I don’t”.

Victoria, B.C. Law Courts

Things went rapidly downhill for the man after that. The customs officer asked him to pullover for a secondary check and when he went to open the trunk the man blurted out “oh, I just remembered, there is a gun in there”.  Big mistake not to have said that just a tad earlier. The customs officer found the gun but no ammunition. The gun was confiscated, the Corvette impounded and the man was carted off to jail where he was held in custody for the next 32 hours.

The man in question hired a Victoria lawyer who managed to get him out of the clink after he pled guilty to trying to smuggle a handgun into Canada. He was released on a promise to return for a sentencing hearing in mid-November. After paying $1,000 to get his Corvette out of impound he was free to head for home. His lawyer must have done some good negotiating on his behalf because the man was looking at a mandatory 3 years in prison.

The guy dutifully returned and appeared before Judge Wayne Smith in Victoria just last week. His Victoria lawyer argued “the problem is, when a U.S. citizen is entitled to carry a weapon and does so lawfully in the U.S. and decides to come up to Canada, things are overlooked,” he said. “But he did recall just before the car was searched that he had a weapon and he did tell the customs officer.”  

Victoria’s Our Place Society Soup Kitchen

The judge was in a very sympathetic and understanding mood it seems as he ordered the man to pay a $1,000 donation to Our Place Society which serves Greater Victoria’s most vulnerable citizens. The man will also be granted a conditional discharge after he completes a period of probation.  With that he should be able to be admitted as a lawyer to the California bar.

In announcing his decision, Judge Smith said he accepted the argument that the man had simply forgotten about the gun in his trunk. The judge said  “I have no hesitation in concluding that you have served your country well in many, many respects and you are now performing a service with your legal education. That is impressive. … This aberrant behaviour is not likely to recur.”  This lawyer to be, just dodged a bullet and is a very lucky man.

I’m pretty sure by now that most American RVers are pretty familiar with the law that prohibits handguns being brought into Canada. Most RVers I’ve talked to or read about in blogs seem to know that and leave any firearms in the US before crossing the border. I know a few RVers who absolutely refuse to travel to Canada because they cannot bring their guns with them. That’s fine with me.

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