A Victoria provincial court judge has told an American lawyer in training he is astonished by the careless attitude he and many of his countrymen have toward firearms.
Judge Wayne Smith made the remark at the sentencing hearing last week of Gabor Falvy, who pleaded guilty to smuggling a handgun into Canada after border officials in Sidney found a gun in his trunk last month.
“You’ve got a firearm casually lying in the trunk of your vehicle,” Smith said. “That’s the difference between our perception of firearms and the American perception. It’s amazing.
“It would seem to me that anyone who was transporting such an object would want to put it in a secure location as soon as possible.”
Smith ordered Falvy to make a $1,000 donation to Our Place Society, which serves Greater Victoria’s most vulnerable citizens, by April 15. Falvy will be granted a conditional discharge after he completes a period of probation.
The 43-year-old former deputy sheriff and U.S. army reserve officer, who earned three purple hearts in Iraq, was arrested Oct. 19 after arriving in Sidney on a Washington state ferry, prosecutor Jill Vivian told the court.
Canadian border officers became suspicious when Falvy, who was driving a 2011 Corvette with California plates, told them he had recently moved to Bellingham. An officer asked him if he had any firearms. Falvy said no.
Falvy was referred for a secondary search, Vivian said, and he and his girlfriend got out of the car. When the officer began opening the trunk, Falvy told him there was a gun inside.
Falvy was in lawful possession of the gun, which was poorly maintained but usable. However, there was no ammunition in the car, said Vivian, who asked Smith to impose a $5,000 fine.
Defence lawyer Bob Jones said Falvy could not afford $5,000.
While waiting for admission to the California bar, Falvy is making $15 an hour working as a legal advocate for a domestic-violence program in Snohomish County, Jones said. After his arrest, he spent 32 hours in custody and paid $1,000 to get his car out of impound.
“The problem is, when a U.S. citizen is entitled to carry a weapon and does so lawfully in the U.S. and decides to come up to Canada, things are overlooked,” Jones said. “But he did recall just before the car was searched that he had a weapon and he did tell the customs officer.”
Falvy explained that when he moved from California to Bellingham in August, he put everything he owned in the car and just left the gun there.
In the end, Smith accepted that Falvy had simply forgotten the firearm. “I have no hesitation in concluding that you have served your country well in many, many respects,” Smith said. “You are now performing a service with your legal education. That is impressive. … This aberrant behaviour is not likely to recur.”
