Silencer finds trigger N.S. probe: Package recipient had ‘desire to muffle the sound produced by firearms’

When border agents intercepted gun silencers destined for a hardware store in central Nova Scotia this past spring, it triggered a criminal investigation that’s still going on into who was importing the prohibited devices.

They seized the two packages, each containing a single firearm suppressor, on May 3 at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. One was black and the other silver. Both were addressed to a Home Hardware in Valley, Colchester County, about eight kilometres northeast of Truro.

“The items were declared as fuel filters, being imported from China,” Lana Hicks, an investigator with the agency, said in a search warrant application.

Both packages were addressed to Ryan Greer, at a location on Pictou Road in Valley.

“The address listed on the two imports was High Tide Building Centres Limited (known as Home Hardware),” Hicks said.

‘Numerous imports’

When investigators checked Greer’s history, “he had numerous imports through the postal and courier stream,” Hicks said.

Just one month earlier, Greer appeared to have received a Purolator shipment with “similar characteristics; being ‘two fuel filters’ from China,” Hicks said in information to obtain a search warrant filed at Truro provincial court.

That package had also been referred to border agents for examination, but that inspection doesn’t appear to have happened, and it was delivered to Greer at the hardware store where he worked on April 26.

Investigators figured out Ryan Greer, whose full name is Christopher Ryan Greer, worked at the hardware store in Valley and lived about three kilometres away on Tamarack Drive.

Most of the items the 38-year-old ordered over the internet arrived at his home, but a few of them were addressed to his workplace.

A woman believed to be his common-law spouse owns the Tamarack Drive home where he lives, Hicks said.

Gold jewelry 

Greer had ordered some items to the hardware store where he worked, including gold jewelry, which “appeared to be of a personal nature,” and was not “consistent with the nature of the business,” said the investigator.

He also had a possession and acquisition licence for restricted firearms, though he had not registered one of the weapons.

“It appears Ryan Greer may be in the process of purchasing or obtaining a restricted firearm,” Hicks said, noting that can take three months.

Border agents staked out the white, split-entry home with an attached carport where Greer lived, as well as his workplace.

“They observed Ryan Greer working at the Home Hardware,” Hicks said, noting his 2015 grey Toyota Corolla was parked in the store’s lot.

One border agent walked past the car, snapping pics of beige paper shooting targets and a wooden frame for them in the back seat.

Agents followed Greer from the hardware store home, where he took the frame out of his car and leaned it up against a shed.

They compared photos shot at the hardware store with his driver’s licence, to make sure they had the right person.

Garbage grab

Hicks and another investigator even grabbed the garbage from out front of the Tamarack Drive home in mid-May, locating a carboard box with Greer’s name on the label.

When they queried Greer’s postal history, investigators found one package he received at work came from a Chinese supplier with a history of shipping brass knuckles and replica firearms.

Of the 55 packages sent to his Tamarack Drive home since November of 2014, “36 were addressed to Ryan Greer or a version of that name,” Hicks said.

One of those shipments came from a Chinese supplier that had seen 81 of its packages seized coming into Canada because they contained prohibited weapons, including stun guns, pepper spray, illegal knives, brass knuckles and silencers, said the investigator.

Any device “intended to muffle or stop the sound or report of a firearm” is prohibited under Canadian law, Hicks said.

‘Does indeed muffle the sound’

Mounties have determined that the devices Greer imported as fuel filters are actually silencers.

“Tests show that when added to a functional firearm that the suppressor does indeed muffle the sound of the round being discharged from the barrel of the firearm.”

A device Greer tried to import from California in May turned out to be “an adaptor for mounting suppressors to firearms,” Hicks said.

On June 13, border agents noticed Greer’s car wasn’t outside the hardware store. One of them “called Home Hardware and asked to speak to Ryan Greer and he was told that Greer no longer works there,” said the investigator.

Hicks convinced a justice of the peace to grant a search warrant for Greer’s home.

‘Shows an immediacy’

“He ordered two separate shipments, each containing one suppressor, for a total of two, within less than a one-month time span,” the investigator said.

“Another shipment containing two items with similar descriptions ‘fuel filters’ and characteristics was delivered to Greer the same day one of the two seized shipments was manifested. This shows an immediacy, and perhaps an impatience for Greer to receive these goods.”

Suppressors are often used on restricted and prohibited guns, Hicks said.

“This is indicative of Greer being in possession of firearms and having desire to muffle the sound produced by firearms.”

‘Target practice’

Investigators knew Greer was into archery because he posted a photo of a dinosaur target full of arrows on his Facebook. But the target they’d spotted in his car “is not suitable for archery” and looks more like something used at a rifle range, Hicks said.

“I believe Ryan Greer is conducting target practice at a place other than a range … necessitating his need to purchase the suppressors.”

The investigator believed “that he has intentionally had these specific items imported to his work address to ensure he receives the items at a location other than his residence, due to their prohibited nature.”

Border agents wanted to go through his home, looking for import and shipping documents as well as banking information and correspondence. They also wanted to check his electronic devices for clues.

Four silencers seized 

During a June 15 search, they seized four firearm suppressors in their original packaging, a Creedmoor Tikka bolt action rifle with a vortex scope, a Winchester Super X pump action 12-gauge shotgun, a Ruger equipped with a scope, a field shotgun, a 30-30 Winchester Model 94 lever action rifle with a Weaver scope, three cases of ammunition totaling 2,418 rounds, an Excalibur Assassin crossbow, computer gear, mobile phones and Greer’s firearms licence, which expires in May of 2028.

Greer – whose lone conviction was for dangerous driving back in 2006 – isn’t facing any charges for importing silencers.

The case is still under investigation, Maria Ladouceur, who speaks for the CBSA, said Thursday in an email.

Reached Thursday by phone, Greer indicated he isn’t sure what will result from the investigation.

“I’m at work right now; I really can’t talk,” he said.

Seizures on the rise

Authorities are seeing a lot of gun silencers flooding into the country in recent years, according to CBSA numbers.

Between 2015 and 2018, they only seized an average of 15 suppressors per year.

But in the fall of 2019, the RCMP flagged imported silencers as a problem.

Since then, border agents seized 574 suppressors in 2019 and 1,476 in 2020.

“All suppressors are considered prohibited devices in Canada. So, unless you have a licence to possess a prohibited device, it would be illegal to be in possession of one,” said Cpl. Chris Marshall, who speaks for the Nova Scotia RCMP.

‘Encouraged’ in the U.K.

Interestingly, in the United Kingdom where they have strict gun control, “suppressors are not only legal, but they’re encouraged, so that the sounds of gunshots won’t disturb people who live adjacent to areas where there’s shooting, like ranges,” said Andrew Somerset, a former soldier turned gun author.

But Brits don’t have handguns, or the proximity to the United States which facilitates them being smuggled across the border into Canada, said Somerset, the author of Arms: the culture and credo of the gun.

One reason people keep trying to import silencers is because they can, he said.

“Thanks to the magic of the internet, now we suddenly have the ability … to order things from China as individuals directly.”

He blamed a shift in North America’s gun culture for getting more people interested in silencers.

“There’s a lot of movement in the States to legalize suppressors,” Somerset said. “Part of that is people make arguments that it’s about hearing protection, which has some legitimacy. If you’re shooting a handgun in an indoor range, for example, a suppressor would certainly be nice.”

‘Fascination with being tactical operators’

People’s “fascination with being tactical operators” who can suppress their firing signature also comes into play, he said.

“Suppressors are kind of in fashion as a desirable thing at the moment,” Somerset said.

The soft “phht noise” guns equipped with silencers make in movies doesn’t compare to the real thing, he said.

“In reality, the sound of a firearm is only partly suppressed by a suppressor,” Somerset said.

“The muzzle blast is what the suppressor really takes care of. It’s that escape of gas from the muzzle that produces this blast and that’s sort of the bang of the gun firing.”

‘Sharp crack’

Rounds travelling through the air also make significant noise, he said.

“If you have a bullet that’s travelling at supersonic speeds, then as it goes past you, you’re going to hear a sharp crack, which is the sonic boom made by that bullet travelling through the air.”

Still, reducing the firing signature can make it difficult to tell where shots are coming from, especially if a shooter has concealed themself, Somerset said.

That could make it tough for police to deal with an active shooter, he said.

“It’s harder for them to locate that shooter,” Somerset said.

“Which is why it has that tactical operator cachet.”