Canadian Lawyer

F Typical illegal firearms retrieved by Piece Options. or the past nine years, Toronto criminal defence lawyer Edward Sapiano has been actively seeking out and retrieving illegal arms and encouraging others to do the same. As the founder of an organization called Piece Options, Sapiano and a group of fellow lawyers retrieve illegal guns from their clients and turn them over to the police. The idea of helping remove weapons from the streets came to Sapiano in 2003. He wondered at the time if there were other lawyers crazy enough to join him, and if so, could they collect and possess illegal firearms without getting arrested? The answers to these questions were yes and he sure hoped so. Surrounded by violence ever since he started working on murder trials as an articling student in the early '90s, Sapiano says he was fed up with gun violence. "Most lawyers enjoy doing one or two murder trials but they do better ecoup nomically elsewhere. I, on the other hand, do a lot of murders. They are physically draining. My trials are typically about a month long and most involve guns. I really dislike them. Nothing could be more natural than for me to think of some mechanism to get them off the street. It's consistent with my philosophy on life: to take action." Deciding to take action is one thing but sorting out the legalities of a lawyer agreeing to collect and onto turn over illegal weapons is another. Sapiano spent much of the first year researching the law, especially The Tor ervice the case law that would support his theory of "non-criminal possession." He called his lawyer friends Police S rovides and asked them a lot of questions while at the same time contacting the authorities who he was cerp for receipts on it tain would be interested in his proposed service. "I communicated with the chief of police's office and p each wea the attorney general's office and put them in touch with each other," says 50-year-old Sapiano. "They from takes in ions. reacted very well. I was told to sit tight and 'we'll get back to you.' I waited, and eventually, it became t Piece Op apparent that no one was going to get back to me." Sapiano wanted the police on his side for several reasons, but mostly, he didn't want himself or anyone else to get arrested for possessing an illegal firearm. He was, however, growing tired of waiting for their approval. In the meantime, gunfire was killing more people on the streets. In November 2004, 11-year-old Tamara Carter was killed by a stray bullet on a Toronto bus, which spurred Sapiano back into action. "When that shooting happened, I got a little angry. I believed that something could be done to help and that I was essentially being told, by way of silence, not to do anything. I realized that this is politics and I'm not a political animal." Piece Options was then founded. How it works Piece Options offers the public an ongoing, free amnesty program similar to the once-per-decade amnesties held by various police departments. The difference, says Sapiano, is that his service doesn't close and it is completely anonymous. A member of the public who has an illegal weapon can contact Piece Options if they are interested in surrendering the gun anonymously (it can also be the person's lawyer who calls Piece Options). A lawyer involved with Piece Options then processes the gun owner www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m M ay 2013 35

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