A MAN DEFENDING HIS CASTLE

It's unreal. Police unions are "disappointed" by the Crown's decision
not to appeal the acquittal of Basil Parasiris. They "deplore" that
"no criminal responsibility has been assigned." And they suggest that
guns should be better controlled, but they are not talking about
their own guns.

In 1763, William Pitt declared in the House of Lords: "The poorest
man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown.
It may be frail -- its roof may shake -- the wind may blow through it
- -- the storm may enter -- the rain may enter -- but the King of
England cannot enter! -- all his force dares not cross the threshold
of the ruined tenement!"

But the police force of Laval, Que., dares.

Recall the facts. On March 2, 2007, Basil Parasiris, his wife and two
children were sleeping in their suburban home.

In a predawn raid, several policemen rammed the front door of the
family house and rushed to the second floor. All dressed in black and
with gun drawn, one of them of went for the master bedroom.

Thinking his family was victim of a criminal home invasion, his wife
screaming, Basil Parasiris had grabbed his revolver.

The two men met in the bedroom doorway, a few feet from each other,
and in a split-second decision, Basil Parasiris shot first, and
Constable Daniel Tessier was killed. All this, plus 14 bullets shot
by the police, had happened within a 30-second span -- in a man's castle.

Mr. Parasiris was tried for first-degree murder but, on June 13, a
jury acquitted him on the basis that he was acting in self-defence.
The judge previously ruled that the search warrant had been obtained
illegally. The Laval police chief expressed dismay at the acquittal.

Then, on July 11, the Crown announced it would not appeal the
verdict. The Union of Quebec Municipal Police Officers and the Laval
Police Brotherhood issued their press release on July 14. The
president of the provincial union wants "every firearm in the country
registered."

Interestingly, Basil Parasiris did have a firearm licence and his
revolver was duly registered.

It is true that the revolver wasn't kept at the place it was
registered to, and that Mr. Parasiris had other unregistered weapons.
He is facing other charges for this.

Under the infamous 1995 C-68 "law," more than 150,000 Canadians are
known by the federal government to be paper criminals just like him.

The jury obviously approved the right of self-defence with a gun. But
the law makes it very difficult and, in some cases, impossible to own
guns or have them handy. And the police want more control.

We must realize that more control is part of the problem, not the
solution. There is no riskless, acceptable way to enforce laws that
control what people do in their own homes.

In the Parasiris case, the police were after drugs. (They say they
found some but, surprisingly, no charge was brought.) Constable
Tessier was another victim of the senseless "war on drugs."

The growing militarization of the police adds to the confrontation
potential. The police and their political and bureaucratic masters
are claiming a monopoly of our protection, disarming the citizenry
while getting more and more powerfully armed themselves. Just think
that the sort of revolver used by Mr. Parasiris was, during the
1990s, considered not efficient enough for policemen, who switched to
semi-automatic pistols all over the country.

Two small but symbolic facts illustrate the difference between
old-style policing and today's praetorians. While the police invasion
of the Parasiris home was in progress, one of his scared children
dialled 9-1-1 for help, displaying an old conception of the police.
Today's policing is different: the division of the Surete du Quebec
responsible for gun controls in the province is called the
"Directorate for Protection of the State" (Direction de la protection
de l'Etat).

With such a hiatus between the police and part of the citizenry,
catastrophes are just waiting to happen.

Pierre Lemieux is an economist in the Department of Management
Sciences at the Universite du Quebec en Outaouais.