Officers seize small arsenal of guns at southern Alberta border crossing

The Canada Border Services Agency says it recently seized 11 undeclared guns in less than a day from three American vehicles entering the country at the Coutts crossing in Alberta.

• Hey, America. Kindly leave your guns at home, CBSA politely asks

The seizures last Friday and Saturday came just days after the federal agency launched a campaign to remind American travellers about the need to declare all firearms at the Canadian border.

The agency says nine of the guns, including an AR-15 assault rifle, were taken from a truck during a routine examination.

Charges are pending in each of the cases and the three travellers are scheduled to appear in Lethbridge provincial court on Oct. 19.

Luke Reimer, an agency spokesman, says three seizures within one day is significant.

"Officers seized those guns during routine secondary examinations and ultimately kept those off of Canadian streets."

He says last year, officers in Western Canada seized 297 undeclared firearms about half of which belonged to people bound for or leaving Alaska.