Well, ok... this one turned out to be a hoax. BUT, I can tell you straight up that there are indeed MANY clueless police officers out there that know nothing about firearms or laws governing firearms.
I'll give you two examples that come to mind. First off, when I was doing my college degree in police technology, I had an internship at a local police station (in Montreal - big city, folks!). At that time, cops here used to carry stainless steel Ruger GP-100's (with the hammers shaved off, due to some cop that cocked his gun in an intervention and shot a handcuffed suspect that was lying on the ground, instead of reading him his rights, lol). Anywho, after a few days, I figured it'd be appropriate to talk firearms with the officer I was riding with, but the dude knew literally nothing despite the fact that he had almost reached retirement age. He did not even know what kind of gun he had or what caliber it could fire. Just to test him, I told him that his gun was a .38 special, but that revolvers could be as big as a .357 magnum... he replied "Oh my God, imagine that! Those must be big like cannons!" (I swear to God... it's just too funny)
Then, we went to the Montreal police shooting range (at the "operational center"), as he wanted to let me try his Ruger that hasn't been pulled out of the holster in like the last 10 years. We get to the range and what do you know? He doesn't have any extra ammo, as he has misplaced his speedloaders somewhere a long time ago (he doesn't even remember when or how). So it's the six he's got in the cylinder (provided they still shoot) or nothing. At least he had enough firearm-related common sense not to fire those last 6 rounds off at the range.. or else we'd be SOL if we met up with 7 armed gangbangers! Although I wouldn't rely on his shooting skills either - I had a feeling that the last time he shot was probably at the academy some 20+ years back (Montreal cops did not need to re-qualify at certain intervals like other depts do). The guy even admitted quite openly that shooting wasn't one of his "
fortes", because he uses his pen a lot more than his gun ("Wow"... it's all that came to mind when he told me this). A good guy overall and very nice too, but I was very unimpressed with some of his "professionalism", to say the least... Definitely not the guy you want responding to a B&E in progress call at your house when the perp is armed, lol!
I also know a few guys who just finished the police foundations college-like program in Ontario (and are in the hiring process for the OPP & Ottawa Police). One of them owns a restricted handgun (he has an RPAL), but was so oblivious to the safe storage regulations that he kept his loaded semi-auto 9mm in a small safety box near his bed (the movable kind, with a handle on top). The box was not secured to anything, plus the gun didn't have a trigger lock on it. Buddy thought it wasn't necessary (I had to set him straight on that one - and some other issues too)... Another guy, also applying in Ontario, thought that his Firearms Safety course card was a firearms permit. He never mailed in his RPAL application and actually wanted to go buy guns with his Safety Course card, lol! (I had to clear things up for him, and now he has sent in his application) I AM NOT KIDDING YOU, guys!
So, can cops be oblivious enough to charge someone with firearms act violations that do not exist
OR to omit to charge someone for obvious violations taking place? Absolutely. The prosecutors are usually a bit more on the ball and will dismiss any BS charges, but please do not expect too much out of the (especially) younger generation of beat cops whenever it comes to firearms. For the most part, they're just as bad in getting facts straight as a Lieberal-friendly newspaper. I've only encountered a few exceptions to that rule, but those cops are usually collectors/target shooters themselves (figures, lol).