It seems that the criminal record of the accused Eaton Centre shooter is longer than first thought and it could have been a lot longer.

A Hamilton court dropped 9 weapons charges against 23-year old Christopher Husbands about 5 weeks before the deadly downtown shooting.

Husbands faced a judge to answer for 17 charges against him, 9 of them connected to allegations from 2010 that Husbands was caught driving a car with a loaded handgun hidden inside the vent.

Those charges were dropped.

According to court documents, the car belongs to someone else and Husbands told authorities who that person was.

When the owner showed up at the police compound to pick up his car, he went for a cigarette and never came back, perhaps suspecting he was in trouble.

Prosecutors surmised the gun likely belonged to the vehicle owner and so dropped the weapons charges against Husbands.

Husbands ended up pleading guilty to 5 other charges: 2 of obstructing a police officer, 2 of breaching bail and a single count of pot possession.

He was slapped with a $200 fine for the marijuana charge to go with 4 months he'd spent in a remand lock-up.

Its not clear whether these charges got Husbands in trouble with his employer.

He worked with an after-school program with the City of Toronto.