That Was An Interesting International Phone Call

Earlier this week I had received a phone call from my Dad who sounded rather worried:

"There's a Staff Inspector from the Toronto Police calling looking to talk with you about your handguns, I gave him your number"

Sure enough, as I'm talking to my dad, a call had come in and the Staff Inspector had left me a message asking me to call him. At that point I wasn't sure what to think. I knew I had no outstanding traffic tickets in Canada nor committed any offences within the fair Province of Ontario or Toronto in particular with guns or otherwise.

It seems the RCMP had lost track of my pistols in Canada and they, and by extension he, wanted to know where they were.

So I called the Staff Inspector back and we had a pleasant conversation.

He was very courteous and professional, as is quite the norm and happily typical for a member of the Metro Toronto Police. (Typically any interaction I've had with MTPD has always been professional and courteous, then again I'm not a criminal so YMMV).

It turns out that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had asked him to find me as after 15 years of not being in Canada, they could not account for the two handguns I had taken to Michgian with me and their registry was worried.

I reported that the two handguns I had exported from Canada when I moved were still in my possession and safe in my safe here in Michigan.

I also reported that when I moved from Toronto 15 years ago, I had properly imported them into the US with ATF permission had sent a copy of the ATF approved import form to the Toronto Firearms Unit as that was what TFU had told me to do at the time. I also offered to take pictures of the firearms to show I had them currently and to give him copies of the ATF import form and the Michigan registration cards if he needed them.

He kindly stated that was unnecessary and it was just a call to confirm that I still had the firearms. Since I had them, and they were not off lollygagging in Canada doing who knows what and corrupting young innocent Canadian minds (The Ruger MkII and the S&W Model 29 are well known to have mind-altering properties) all was well.

Now, a Staff Inspector is a pretty high rank in the Metropolitan Toroto Police Force and I'm a bit surprised they were taking up his time to track down my whereabouts, especially after I had left 15 years ago. Either the RCMP had just realized that their registration system had a problem after a 15 year absence of the firearms or they do maintenance on their handgun database every 15 years or so and come up with missing guns at that point.

Certainly it was a rather surprising phone call, but it was quite positive and ended up being a pleasant conversation, and the RCMP's handgun registry is now more accurate than it had been before.