U.S. travellers carrying their personal guns into Canada
Americans cherish their constitutional right to keep and bear arms, even when they come to Canada, documents show.
Intelligence summaries compiled by Canada Border Services Agency show that while the agency’s officers discover smuggled guns destined for the Canadian criminal underworld, most firearms they turn up belong to law-abiding Americans.
“Most of the firearms seized by CBSA at the land ports of entry are the personal firearms of legitimate U.S. travellers who neglected — intentionally or not — to declare their personal firearms,” says the agency’s strategic intelligence analysis division in an undated report covering the period 2004-2006.
The report, along with other previously classified monthly intelligence summaries dating back to January 2007, were obtained by the Canadian Press under the federal Access to Information Act.
Crossings into British Columbia account for the largest percentage of all gun seizures and about a third of all handguns, the agency says. A high percentage is in transit to Alaska and not intended for the illicit firearms market, the report says.
Americans travelling through Canada between Alaska and the lower 48 states, often doing seasonal work, can take their guns if they declare them.
“I can tell you right now that many people that go to Alaska and legally declare their guns declare as many as 10 or more guns,” says Dan Liebel, who speaks for the Customs and Excise Union. “Now, how many don’t declare them?”
Liebel, who works at a small B.C. Interior border crossing, says no records are kept on whether declared guns that arrive in Canada are actually taken out of the country again.
Border services officials declined to be interviewed by the Canadian Press.
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