A Vancouver Island man guilty of a dozen weapon offences has had some of his missing guns turn up and be used in crimes in Burnaby.
In November, a Supreme Court judge sentenced Bryce Scott McDonald to 40 months in prison for various offences related to the possession and storage of restricted firearms.
Court heard McDonald had acquired a number of restricted firearms whose registration certificates indicated they were destined for his house in Courtenay. But after a rifle registered to him was found abandoned in Surrey, RCMP began to investigate. In December 2013, police searched his home and a storage unit but only found seven of 49 guns registered to him. The seven were found in his home.
McDonald testified that he had sold several of the others, but approximately 30 of the restricted firearms had vanished and were unaccounted for.
At least two guns were used in crimes in Burnaby.
According to affidavit evidence by a police officer during the trial, on June 16, 2014, the RCMP responded to a complaint of a home invasion in progress at 6092 Canada Way. The suspects fled, but the police found and searched their vehicle. Inside there was a loaded Storm Ruger handgun registered to McDonald.
Five days later, RCMP were called to a shooting at Brentwood Town Centre and found a man who had suffered a gunshot wound to his leg. In July 2014, a suspect turned himself in claiming responsibility for this shooting. He surrendered the gun that he had used. It was a 9mm Luger, also registered to McDonald.
In his sentencing, Justice Robin Baird noted McDonald, 34, was not charged with and has not been convicted of firearms trafficking. But he added the issue of the missing guns is “surely an aggravating factor on the present convictions which focus upon Mr. McDonald’s flagrant misconduct as a licensed gun owner and the scope of his unlawful behaviour in managing his gun collection.”
