Rockets and land mines and bombs, oh-my!

By 

John A. Gayder

This article was published during 1999-2000 in Canadian editions of Safari Times under a column called 
"Jag: thoughts from behind the badge".

It’s time to debunk a scenario that occurs at least weekly somewhere in Canada. 

It usually goes like this: The police conduct a huge raid (The myriad of often-hokey excuses for doing this will be covered at another time) on a gun owner’s home.  In addition to actual firearms, they pick up every scrap of firearm related material from books to empty powder tins.  They also grab every pellet gun, empty stock, “Rambo” hunting knives and piece of military paraphernalia on scene.

The next step is for the police to hold a press conference.  They create large piles of all the seized material in what will be the background area of the reporter’s photographs. They then lay everything that remotely looks like a firearm out on a table or the floor of what will be the foreground.  Every reporter in the land is invited to take pictures of the loot and to hear the list of charges against the owner of the items.

But many of the firearms displayed are legitimately owned firearms. If the raid was conducted as a result of a single, improperly stored firearm, all of the person’s collection is seized. In some cases, this may be a prudent and lawful course of action. However, most times it is not.

Without fail, an officer involved in the case is quoted as saying, “We are unable to imagine why anybody would need this many firearms.”  Invariably, this is stated in a tone of somber wonderment with much tongue-clucking, head shaking and shoulder shrugging.  I guess he has never heard of a guy who hunts many different types of game and needs a different gun (or three) to hunt each.  Obviously he knows nothing of collecting Mausers or Lee Enfields.

Another officer will then obligingly take the scariest looking rifle on hand, misidentify it as a “machine gun” and then attach a bayonet and strike a grim faced pose for the photographers.  Alternatively, he or she will point to a “grenade” or “rocket launcher” if any were taken in the sweep.

Of course a rifle with a bayonet is just as dangerous as a pitchfork, but when was the last time you read about “deadly garden tools found in local backyard shed”?  Similarly, the “explosive ordinance” displayed is either deactivated war souvenirs, or purchases from flee markets or mail order by the curious.  How can I be so sure the items in the pictures were inert? Simple, no press conference would ever be conducted within a kilometer of real, live, explosive devices.

The result of all this are headlines which read, “Huge arsenal including bombs taken from local man”, accompanied by photos.  It will be reported with great relish how the police “needed several large vans” to remove the “large amounts of weapons and ammunition” from the home.

Why would somebody want an inert landmine or artillery shell?  For the same reason people visit war museums - curiosity and an appreciation of history.  People are naturally appreciative of a display of anything thing from old steam engines to fabric looms.  These were the tools that lead to technological mastery of this planet over the forces of nature.   Similarly, deactivated military ordinance represent the tools we used to secure democracy or those used by the people we beat in combat to secure democracy.  It is the selfsame curiosity that made Saving Private Ryan one of the most popular movies in history.

I myself have an inert 84mm recoilless rifle training round I purchased.  It is the size of a large thermos, and weighs about 6 lbs.  I display it in my home as an example of the largest shoulder fired rifle round I ever fired.  It is a real conversation piece! It makes the 600 Nitro Express cartridge look like a .22 short.  I also have a deactivated “potato masher” hand grenade that was brought home from Belgium by a relative after WW1.

These harmless objects will provide a direct physical connection back to my family’s history when I explain it to my Son when he grows older.

If the press conferences in question were confined solely to reporting raids on the homes of actual criminals, I would not be writing this article. We should all be thankful when the police intervene in legitimately dangerous situations. My hat is off to the guys in the “bomb squad”.  They have a truly hazardous and frightening job.  My hat is also off to any officer whose work leads to the removal of real live explosive devices from the hands of genuinely dangerous criminals.  

Unfortunately, I have seen too many media extravaganzas involving situations in which there never was any real danger to the public. Obviously I’m not talking about raids on Hells Angel clubhouses here. I’m talking about the raid on widow Smith’s house a week after her gun collecting husband died, or the ones occasionally conducted on handgun owners who forgot to notify the Registrar about changing their address. Don’t think stuff like this happens? Think again.

These raids always make front-page news.  A few days later when the charges against the owner never materialize or are dropped, and his property has been returned - you will be lucky to see a small blurb about it on page n14 next to the Bargain Harolds advertisements.

Why would supposedly grown men resort to this form of childish and quixotic deception?  The press conferences and resulting media hype appear to be designed only to show the more gullible segments of the public what a great job they are doing.  A second, possibly unintended effect is to frighten local church ladies end other worry warts into thinking a) the world is full of dangerous kooks and by extension, b) we need even more gun laws. 

It is unconscionable for the police to display a person’s property in this fashion. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?  Lastly, it is worse than fraud to portray souvenir items to be something they are not. These shams can be stopped by writing letters to the editor of the offending paper asking who they think they’re kidding.  Ask the offending police service for copies of the bomb squad’s analysis of the “bombs” seized under departmental and territorial Access to Information laws.

Biography of the author and disclaimer: (See attached Curriculum Vitae for additional info)

The author has been a Constable for eight years with the Niagara Parks Police in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The views expressed in this article may or may not represent the official position of his employer.

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