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Jamie Graham, the highly regarded Victoria, B.C. police chief, has been reprimanded for leaving his loaded service revolver under the front seat of his car while it was in the police HQ garage. Detectives discovered Chief Graham’s gun while searching the building and all cars inside it for riot gear that had gone missing — a shotgun, tear gas, pepper balls and tactical vests. Ironically, at the time of the discovery, Mr. Graham was upstairs at a news conference telling reporters how “unacceptable” it was that the riot equipment was missing and warning the public about the danger it posed.

There are several ridiculous things about this incident. Mr. Graham, who is known as a cop’s chief (meaning he is well liked and regarded by the policemen and women he commands), was reported by own officers. Couldn’t they just have said to him on the QT, “Hey, boss, don’t leave your gun lying around in your car or next time we’ll have to write you up?” I don’t think this is a major (or even a minor) infraction on the chief’s part, even though Victoria police policy is that every gun at the station must be “unloaded, placed inside a locking drawer within a locked locker, and not … left unattended.” Who was going to steal his gun from the police parkade? (Well, maybe the same people who stole all that riot gear, but I digress.)The hypocrisy, of course, is that if a civilian did the same, the same police force (and nearly any other force across the country) would throw the book at him. That is where the real problem lies in this case. A civilian handgun owner discovered to have left his licensed revovler under the seat of his car which was locked inside his garage would certainly lose his gun license and his guns and would almost certainly go to jail. He’d have a criminal record, for sure.