Canada deports gun-toting clergyman (from Alabama)

[jpak]

http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20111203/NEWS01/112030311/Canada-deports-gun-toting-clergyman

SARNIA -- An Alabama pastor caught with a .22 caliber revolver at the Blue Water Bridge has been fined $10,000 in Sarnia court.

Frank Machen, 63, pleaded guilty to the Nov. 25 offenses of failing to report importation of the revolver, possession of a prohibited weapon, and being the occupant of a vehicle in which there was a prohibited weapon. He was sentenced Thursday.

Machen crossed the border to visit friends in Kitchener, Ontario. He told border officials he had no guns with him, although he owned rifles and handguns and had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

A search of the vehicle produced a small revolver in a case in the driver's door pocket.

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[RC]

1. Canada knows how to enforce their common sense laws.

Good for them.

[gejohnston]

6. I don't know about common sense

their crime rate has not dropped since any Canadian could buy a machine gun with less hassle than a pistol. That was before 1977.

[RC]

7. Their crime rate is way lower than ours.

So what's your point?

[SteveM]

8. Proper hockey! nt

[gejohnston]

9. It was before any of the laws were passed

The 1934 handgun licensing law was because of fear of immigrants.
The 1977 law was fear of terrorism by French speakers and First Nations.

The 1995 law was theater by over reacting to one event and pandering to urban dwellers.

[ileus]

2. I hope his flock ponys up some bucks to help him with his loss.

He told border officials he had no guns with him, although he owned rifles and handguns and had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

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did he have any other firearms with him? what does his CC premit have to do with the story? considering the 22 was in a case in the door I believe it's safe to assume he forgot the gun was there.


sounds like he got bit by forgetfulness...cAnada...so sad they had such promise.

[rfranklin]

3. If he is so careless about where his guns are...

why shouldn't he pay the penalty?

[CanonRay]

5. The CC permit is probably why they decided to search the car.

Their law enforcement would have access to this information, and search of vehhicles entering Canada is by no means routine.

[DFW]

4. Alabama, the state of "arrest 'em if they ain't got papers."

Alabama, where a German manager of a Mercedes plant giving work to who-knows-how-many Alabamians that would otherwise
be unemployed was arrested for not having his papers on him.

According to the standards of the Republicans in Alabama, the Canadians should have sentences the pastor to the maximum
prison sentence, citing the need to protect their country from riff-raff from "south of the border," and THEN deported him.

The Pastor got off lightly. Maybe he thinks God forgave him, but the Canadians had no reason to.

Try entering the United States as a foreigner with an undeclared firearm. Whatever sentence Alabama would have given
a Canadian trying it, that's what their pastor should have received in Canada.