I Favour Locking Up Criminals

And I feel that possession of an illegal weapon deserves a mandatory prison sentence so I can understand the police concern about weapons being turned in by a third party but getting the weapon off the street is a no brainer so why are the police, the police chief and the the mayor not promoting programs like Piece Option? Lawyers are part of criminal justice system for gawd sakes.......

Lawyer gun plan panned
By ALAN CAIRNS, SUN MEDIA

Toronto Police have "very serious concerns" about a Toronto lawyer program that sees guns anonymously turned over to police.

"Everyone wants guns off the street," police spokesman Mark Pugash said yesterday.

But he suggested it is not in "society's best interests" to have lawyers insert themselves into the weapons surrender process.

The free and anonymous Piece Options program has seen either gun owners, or their shocked parents, turn over 20 weapons since the program began in December 2004.

The latest weapon to make its way into Toronto Police hands was a sawed-off rifle that a mother found in her son's dresser last week. It was through lawyers that she turned over the gun. Because of client confidentiality, her identity was kept a secret.

A Piece Options' founder, Toronto lawyer Edward Sapiano, has said the program could net a arsenal if it had police support and a marketing budget.

DISAPPOINTED

Sapiano and other lawyers are disappointed that Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair and Mayor David Miller have not embraced Piece Options.

Police concerns focus mostly on the inherent dangers and about the potential poisoning of evidence, Pugash said.

"If you are in possession of a gun and you get on a Number 36 bus and go to Mr. Sapiano's office ... what is the risk to yourself and other people on the bus," Pugash said.

He suggested that lawyers are more than likely not firearms experts and should not be handling firearms in this way.

"Shall we wait for a tragedy to occur to see that this is not the way to do it," Pugash said.

If police tested a lawyer-surrendered gun and found it has been used in a homicide, they would be duty-bound to investigate the matter "as far as the evidence takes" them, Pugash said.

Criminals caught with guns should not be encouraged to lie that they were on their way to their lawyer's office to give up the gun, Pugash said.