This story unfortunately will lead to the destruction of a nice collection however I agree in the confiscation of it (not the destruction). The ex-mountie was banned from owning them from a prior conviction on weapons charges and legally shouldn't have had them.
Canada's laws and changing and peoples views on firearms are gradually moving from "people don't need firearms" to something a bit more excepting. More and more people are looking at handguns and not just the old shotgun or hunting rifle, of which there are more then you'd believe in Canada!
Strum.. there wasn't really a total ban on guns like other places however the restrictions were quite harsh for awhile. Today you can own a lot of different types of firearms in Canada including handguns (4.14" barrel or longer), semi-auto rifles and even the evil black gun. You just need to follow the rules set, which I've found, while a pita, is not that much work. See my post in this section for more info on Canada and guns.