Souris man handed 3-year gun ban

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This article was published 01/11/2024 (566 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Souris man was handed $2,500 in fines and a three-year firearms ban in a Brandon courtroom on Thursday after pleading guilty to a pair of offences, including possession of a suppressor.

Crown attorney Ron Toews said RCMP executed a search warrant on Dec. 15, 2023, at a home on Fourth Avenue West in Souris occupied by Rodney Duncan as well as a co-accused who was not named, neither of whom were home at the time.

“A search of the residence yielded drug trafficking paraphernalia as well as a small amount of suspected cocaine and meth,” Toews told court. “Three firearms were located in Duncan’s bedroom. All three were not safely stored as per requirement of the Firearms Act.”

Those three guns were a Remington pump-action rifle, a Scorpion bolt-action .22-calibre rifle and a Remington pump-action shotgun.

Attached to the barrel of the .22-calibre rifle was a device determined to be a suppressor, also known as a silencer. These devices can help conceal the sound and flash from a gun being fired.

According to Toews, a search of Canadian Police Information Centre records indicated that neither Duncan nor anyone else at the residence had a possession and acquisition licence (PAL).

Duncan was arrested after he returned home, where he apparently declined to provide a statement to police but acknowledged he did not have a PAL and that the guns were not properly stored.

“One often hears from the gun-owning community that the regulations shouldn’t be penalizing responsible gun owners or sport shooters,” Toews said. “There is nothing that can legitimately be said about owning a suppressor that would fit into a category of either recreational or sports here.”

Toews asked Associate Chief Judge Donovan Dvorak for Duncan to be given a $1,000 fine for the improper storage, a $1,500 fine for having the suppressor and a five-year prohibition from owning firearms.

Defence lawyer Jonathan Richert accepted the fines proposed by the Crown but made a case for his client to only be banned from owning guns for a couple of years.

He said that Duncan was in the process of getting a PAL and it was his understanding that his client owned the guns to deal with nuisance animals.

As for the suppressor, Richert said Duncan had purchased it from someone only a week or two prior to his arrest for shooting gophers and didn’t realize it was prohibited.

“The problem is that the landscape has shifted significantly in the past 10 to 20 years in Canada,” Richert said.

“We’ve taken a markedly different route than our neighbours to the south, and we don’t want that kind of a society where there’s a mass shooting every week in the newspapers. So, if you’re going to own guns, you have to do it responsibly and I’ve had that talk with Mr. Duncan.”

Richert said that one of the guns found at Duncan’s home was owned by another person who was interested in recovering it. He said a friend of Duncan with a valid PAL was interested in retrieving the rest.

Duncan declined the opportunity to speak when given the option.

While presenting his decision, Dvorak said while outdoor recreation, including hunting, is common in rural Canada, there are certain requirements that have to be followed, like having a PAL.

Ultimately, the judge decided in favour of the $2,500 in fines, giving Duncan 18 months to pay them off.

He also gave Duncan a three-year firearm prohibition and ordered the forfeiture of the suppressor. Duncan’s guns are to be transferred to someone else’s possession within 90 days.

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