...Officer K. reminded me that my firearms licence had expired. He said I could turn the gun over to them for storage, or they could take the gun and destroy it.
My gun? It is a single-barrel .20 gauge shotgun. It is 40 years old. I used to take it into the woods up north to get partridge in the fall.
The last time I used it, I was walking along a hydro cut when I surprised a deer in the long dry grass. She leapt away in slow motion, flanks rippling, nostrils flaring; too beautiful.
I haven't hunted since.
I own no shells.
But it's my gun, dammit. I guess, when the Feds began the long-gun registry, I should have lied and not bothered to register the damn thing.
Officer K. pressed me about turning the gun over, there and then, for storage or destruction. For a brief moment I thought about handing it over, if only to get rid of him and his pal.
And then it just seemed wrong:
A couple of cops show up at my door, unannounced, and the talkative one says he has reason to believe, and I'm supposed to hand over my property just like that?....
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Toronto columnist: The cops came and took my gun
Toronto Star
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A small gripe. There is no such thing as a .20 gauge. That is a common error among writers who know little to nothing of firearms. Shotgun gauges do not have the point (.) in front of them.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, no, he should not have registered it, as a very large number of Canadians have not ergistered theirs, and turned that countried registration into a massively expensive joke.
Umm, excepting .410, of course, which is not a gauge, but a caliber, as in .41 inch diameter.
ReplyDeleteThough you still hear people say 410 gauge.
Well, the guy did say he didn't really care much about guns per se...but he did feel that the gun in question was HIS and the cops had no right to confiscate the old thing - and the manner in which they took it was just outrageous!
ReplyDelete(I don't know Thing One about guns either, so I wouldn't spot anyone else's errors). Oh, but I do know this: probably a good idea for everyone in the US to run right out and buy one and learn how to use it.