According to a Toronto Sun article by Chris Doucette, outlining the arrest of one man and the seizure of a 3-D firearm, dated 25 October, 2023 we find the following quote:
“Officers seized five illegal handguns, including a 3-D printed handgun, as well as a suppressor (also known as a silencer), ammunition and several magazines, two of which were prohibited high-capacity magazines,” Const. Maniva Armstrong said in a statement released Wednesday.
The article’s focus is on the manufacture of the 3-D firearm. Now it may just be me but the manufacture of a 3-D printed firearm lower does not really impress or scare me unduly. I may be wrong but the only part of the handgun mentioned that can be produced with a 3-D printer is the lower assembly and the grip. That in itself is not a firearm in my world.
On the rare instance that I actually take time to disassemble my 9 mm pistol in an effort to try to clean it, I can’t help but notice that most of the gun is made of steel, not plastic. The part that goes “bang” sits on the top of the plastic stuff and is made of steel, such things as the barrel and the slide along with the control mechanisms which include the trigger mechanism and the springs. OK, the sights might be plastic!
So this brings me back to the article in the Sun which states that there were four other handguns seized along with this plastic wonder gun. We seem to be more upset about something made at home in a printer than we are about where and how this individual obtained four illegal handguns and the steel stuff that is needed to build the pistol with the plastic stuff underneath it! No mention of that detail. Just more fodder for the Federal Government to ban more stuff that can be legally obtained, I guess.
In addition, there are those magazines that were confiscated. High-capacity even, with no description of what the high-capacity mags held. I suspect that most journalists couldn’t tell you what, legally speaking, constitutes a high-capacity magazine.
I suspect that Const. Armstrong, mentioned above, may not even know what a high-capacity magazine is as most police officers seem uneducated with respect to firearms issues according to a recently retired Police Inspector I spoke to. Apparently the federal government will not pay their budgets for firearms enforcement.
This was recently highlighted in the press after a negligent discharge of a firearm during a training exercise at the Ontario Police College by an instructor of all things. Having taken part in that very training drill myself, even I know that blanks have to be used and the gun checked, every time it is used. Sounded like a Hollywood movie was being filmed! Sounds like the film set of “Rust”.
Now, I may be off base here but, if this type of incident had taken place at a civilian firing range or gun club the Chief Firearms Officer would have closed the facility immediately until further notice and it would not open for a long time to come, if ever. So does the Ontario Police College get special treatment, or what? Time will tell.
Does this mean some Canadians get treated differently than others? The CCFR might think so after receiving the decision in the court battle over the Order in Council. In their notice to members on 30 October, 2023 they quote the following:
“It seem that Justice Kane has concluded, in writing, that the government owes no procedural fairness to Canadians in these types of matters and that all the government need do, is scrawl out a preamble in an Order in Council to take whatever they want, whenever they want. This decision should be concerning to all Canadians.”
Better watch out people. They will be coming for your 3-D printer next!