Timer Garbage Collection

programming flash
1

Do timers not get GC’d because they are running?
From what I can tell they don’t which means there must be some reference somewhere?

var t:Timer;

t=new Timer(50,1);
t.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE,tc,false,0,true);
t.start();

t=new Timer(50);

System.gc();

function tc(e:TimerEvent):void
{
	trace('check1'); // check1
}

as far as I can tell in this example there is on reference to the timer as the original reference is re-assigned and the listener is a weak reference so the System.gc (ran in the stand alone player) should remove it. But it still calls the ‘tc’ function.

Any explanation of what is happening or where I am going wrong ?

Thanks for your consideration.