By Glenn Hicks

Gun stores argue safe storage, offer options to amnesty

Mar 31, 2018 | 10:00 AM

Why turn your unwanted firearm over to police for destruction as part of the province-wide gun amnesty when you can sell it and make cash?

That’s the question being asked by James Brake who works at Arnie’s Guns & Archery in Prince Albert who said it’s a very straightforward process to sell a weapon to a registered retailer. Unlike when someone is buying a gun from him, he does not need to see a license nor ask any questions of someone who is selling.

“That’s because the onus is on the gun owner to check the license of the person they’re conveying the gun to,” he told paNOW. “There are no cross checks with the police. When I buy a gun I’m not required by law and I don’t have the means to check the gun’s  history.” But he added if he buys a gun that’s not legal the police can come and take it from him without compensation.

“If there are any questions about ownership or legality of ownership we can’t touch it. We’d be the first to call police if there was anything unscrupulous,” he said.

Starting Thursday, police across the province asked owners of unwanted firearms to arrange to have them handed over and disposed of safely. The program runs until late April.

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The idea is to prevent the weapons from being stolen and ending up in the hands of criminals, but Brake is doubting the impact of the initiative. He suggested the 157 firearms given up in last year’s amnesty in Regina is a mere drop in the bucket.

“There are millions of guns out there. You’re not going to remove the population of guns; this isn’t going to do anything of that nature,” he said. Brake was skeptical of the theory that these unwanted guns were being removed from potential nefarious activities. “Every gun has the potential to be a bad thing,” he said.

paNOW asked Brake if having unwanted guns sold back to dealers would simply put them back into the marketplace where ultimately they could be stolen. He called that “a moot argument” and figured the best way to keep firearms out of the hands of the bad guys was proper storage.

“I hear a lot of horror stories about people having their guns stolen and they didn’t store them properly; they were loose in the garage and that’s wrong,” he said. “People should be held accountable for that.”

Police say one of the main reasons for amnesty is because people don’t want the responsibility of having to keep an unwanted firearm such as when a family member who owned it dies.

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow