The police in Canada said on Monday that they had found several hundred firearms while searching the home of a former lawmaker.
The weapons were being kept by Inky Mark, who spent 13 years as a member of the Canadian Parliament, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Manitoba said in a news conference. Officers described a sizable stash of weaponry found in the search: more than 400 guns, ammunition and an antique cannon.
They also said that they had recovered more than 300,000 Canadian dollars in cash (around $213,000).
Mr. Mark, 78, was arrested at his home in Dauphin, Manitoba, and charged with a dozen gun offenses, including firearms trafficking and multiple possession charges. In Canada, gun ownership is federally regulated.
Mr. Mark, a conservative, served as the mayor of Dauphin before being elected as a federal lawmaker for the area from 1997 to 2010.
It was unclear why Mr. Mark had such a large collection in his home. He could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
“At this time, we don’t know his motivation on why he had that many firearms,” Cpl. Barry Kirby of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Monday. “We know he’s a firearm collector, but that’s really all.”
Mr. Mark had no previous history with the police, the corporal said. The police searched his home after he was linked in March to an investigation of another man accused of gun charges.
Corporal Kirby said the police had seized 439 firearms. The authorities believed that at least three of them had been illegally trafficked and that at least one had a tampered serial number, Corporal Kirby said, adding that it would take several weeks for them to document the evidence.
Photos of the firearms, taken at Mr. Mark’s home and shared by the police on social media on Monday, showed piles of seized guns and a dusty, black cannon on a bright green wheeled base.
Mr. Mark appeared in a court in Dauphin last week before being released, the authorities said.
Mr. Mark, a businessman and teacher, served as a member of Parliament for several right-wing parties: Canada Reform, Canada Reform Conservative Alliance, the Progressive Conservative Party and the Conservative Party of Canada.
While in office, he argued strongly in favor of lawful gun ownership.
Firearm ownership in Canada has tightened further in recent years, with most assault-style weapons banned and handgun sales frozen. There are about 1.25 million registered firearms in the country, according to federal police data.
But reform programs targeting owners of assault rifles have been polarizing in provinces like Manitoba, where there is a rich hunting tradition in its rural communities, as the weapons can be used to hunt. Officials in Manitoba have pushed back against a federal gun buyback program, arguing that such efforts are inefficient.
American firearms are also increasingly being smuggled across the border, according to the authorities, fueling gun violence in Canada.
