SIGguy229
Regular Member
imported post
Police on the lookout for missing registered guns
Police on the lookout for 36K registered handguns
As the District prepares to begin accepting applications for handgun permits, police are having a tough time finding tens of thousands of guns already registered in the city.
About 41,000 handguns are registered in D.C., but more than 36,000 of those guns are owned by residents who registered prior to the 1976 ban.
On WTOP's Ask the Chief program, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier says police don't know where the 36,000 registered handguns are because the department has not done an audit of registered guns.
"A lot of these were registered pre-gun ban law, pre-1976, and even though those who registered back then were required to let us know if they moved or no longer have possesion of the handgun, whether they did or not we don't know. We believe that a lot of people did not."
Lanier says the main reason police have not done an audit is a lack of technology.
"Automation will make that a lot easier. It's all paper documents. We're working right now to automate all the information we have. It's hard to audit paper records."
D.C. Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), who chairs the committee that oversees the police, is concerned about how this will impact the department's ability to implement the new handgun regulations.
"It is unfortunate that this problem of how we have handled registration in the past is going to complicate the effort to start up new registrations. Clearly the government is going to have to get ahead of the game if we're going to do this right."
Lanier says about 1,100 of the handguns are registered to off-duty D.C. Police officers who live in the city, 163 belong to retired D.C. Police, 150 are registered to law enforcement officers who live in D.C. but do not work for the Metropolitan Police Department and about 2,800 belong to security companies.
<break> <break>
It's not about guns...it's about control (where did I read that, again?)
Why don't they just dump the whole registration thing, since they can't do it right, it doesn't prevent/deter/protect anything, it costs a
-full of money, and it stomps on people's freedoms.
Police on the lookout for missing registered guns
Police on the lookout for 36K registered handguns
As the District prepares to begin accepting applications for handgun permits, police are having a tough time finding tens of thousands of guns already registered in the city.
About 41,000 handguns are registered in D.C., but more than 36,000 of those guns are owned by residents who registered prior to the 1976 ban.
On WTOP's Ask the Chief program, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier says police don't know where the 36,000 registered handguns are because the department has not done an audit of registered guns.
"A lot of these were registered pre-gun ban law, pre-1976, and even though those who registered back then were required to let us know if they moved or no longer have possesion of the handgun, whether they did or not we don't know. We believe that a lot of people did not."
Lanier says the main reason police have not done an audit is a lack of technology.
"Automation will make that a lot easier. It's all paper documents. We're working right now to automate all the information we have. It's hard to audit paper records."
D.C. Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), who chairs the committee that oversees the police, is concerned about how this will impact the department's ability to implement the new handgun regulations.
"It is unfortunate that this problem of how we have handled registration in the past is going to complicate the effort to start up new registrations. Clearly the government is going to have to get ahead of the game if we're going to do this right."
Lanier says about 1,100 of the handguns are registered to off-duty D.C. Police officers who live in the city, 163 belong to retired D.C. Police, 150 are registered to law enforcement officers who live in D.C. but do not work for the Metropolitan Police Department and about 2,800 belong to security companies.
<break> <break>
It's not about guns...it's about control (where did I read that, again?)
Why don't they just dump the whole registration thing, since they can't do it right, it doesn't prevent/deter/protect anything, it costs a