Brad Haugli says his uncle would be alive today if a program like the provincial Gun Amnesty Month had been accessible to his family.
Haugli's uncle used to hunt and owned a rifle legally. As time went on, his uncle stopped hunting and the gun went unused in his home. Over the years, things in his uncle's life changed, culminating to his eventual suicide using the rifle he had in his home.
"If my father and other family members, his wife, anybody, would have known that there's an ability to turn in that firearm . to the police to dispose of it, then my uncle would probably be alive today," he said.
Haugli, president of the British Columbia Association of Chiefs of Police and an inspector with the Lower Mainland branch of the RCMP, is a strong supporter of gun amnesty programs and said it gives people the chance to turn in guns they may no longer want or use.
Simon Fraser University professor emeritus Gary Mauser, who is an anti-gun registry advocate, released a statement denouncing the program because it improperly targets gun owners who may not want to give up their firearms.
"It is poor policy for the police to ask citizens to surrender potentially valuable firearms without offering reimbursement," Mauser said in the release.
In a phone interview with the NOW, Mauser said the police should offer alternatives to simply turning in unwanted firearms. Many old firearms, especially rifles, could be sold to gun clubs or donated to museums, he added.
What's more, Mauser said the campaign is highly unlikely to have an impact on violent crime because criminals won't be turning in their guns to police.
But that's not the intention behind the program, Haugli said.
"The spirit of the gun amnesty is to make homes safer," he said. "It's not about, 'we're going to get criminals to turn in their guns,' it's about making our community safer."
The Burnaby RCMP have yet to release the final number of guns turned in, but three weeks into the program, the RCMP had collected about 680 firearms across the province.
For a longer version of this story, go to www.burnaby now.com.
