Americans cherish their constitutional right to keep and bear arms, even when they come to Canada, documents show.

Intelligence summaries compiled by Canada Border Services Agency show that while the agency's officers discover smuggled guns destined for the Canadian criminal underworld, most firearms they turn up belong to law-abiding Americans.

"Most of the firearms seized by CBSA at the land ports of entry are the personal firearms of legitimate U.S. travellers who neglected — intentionally or not — to declare their personal firearms," says the agency's strategic intelligence analysis division in an undated report covering the period 2004-2006.

The report, along with other previously classified monthly intelligence summaries dating back to January 2007, were obtained by the Canadian Press under the federal Access to Information Act.

Crossings into British Columbia account for the largest percentage of all gun seizures and about a third of all handguns, the agency says. A high percentage is in transit to Alaska and not intended for the illicit firearms market, the report says.

Americans travelling through Canada between Alaska and the lower 48 states, often doing seasonal work, can take their guns if they declare them.

"I can tell you right now that many people that go to Alaska and legally declare their guns declare as many as 10 or more guns," says Dan Liebel, who speaks for the Customs and Excise Union. "Now, how many don't declare them?"

Liebel, who works at a small B.C. Interior border crossing, says no records are kept on whether declared guns that arrive in Canada are actually taken out of the country again.

Border services officials declined to be interviewed by the Canadian Press.

662 guns seized in 2007

According to reports, the Canada Border Services Agency seized 662 guns in 2007, three-quarters of them handguns. Between 2004 and 2007, it confiscated 2,289 guns.

"While uncommon, we have seized handguns that are linked to [the] illicit firearms market with an organized-crime connection," the agency intelligence report says.

Firearms seizures at border points have declined steadily since 2001, says a 2006 briefing note prepared for agency president Alain Joliceur after Toronto police seized 20 U.S.-sourced guns in raids targeting the so-called Jamestown Crew gang.

The exception was 2003, when the totals spiked because customs officers in Montreal seized almost 500 rifles from a commercial shipment.

The agency intelligence summary points out that seizure statistics only record the successful interception of firearms. "It would be difficult to estimate quantities not being intercepted," the report says.

Liebel points out customs officers only inspect between one and 10 per cent of vehicles coming across the Canada-U.S. border.

"I've heard estimates in the range of we get one to three per cent of what actually is getting through, but that's just rumour," he says.

Undeclared guns found at B.C., Ont. borders

Besides B.C. border points, the agency's monthly intelligence summaries show Ontario's Niagara Falls and Fort Erie crossings routinely turn up a significant percentage undeclared and smuggled firearms.

Quebec, Maritime and Prairie entry portals aren't as busy, though all have registered major gun seizures in the last couple of years.

The rate of seizures normally peaks in the summer tourist season — June, July and August — the agency says in its 2007 year-end intelligence summary.

In an outlook for 2008 in the same document, the agency says overall trends are expected to continue this year.

"The United States will continue to be the primary source of firearm seizures because of its close proximity to Canada and the availability of firearms due to regulations that are more permissive and conducive to gun ownership," the report says.