SIGguy229

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.

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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.

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falcon1

Maybe Mayor Bloomberg's NYPD knows where some of them are?


This is typical of what I would expect from the DC government. Have a system in place which others must follow under threat of criminal charges if they do not, but DC cannot be competent enough to administer the system. What a mess, and not surprising. Seth Carus (IIRC) said in the 1980s that the Iraqi Army (of that time) made the Egyptians look like Prussians. I'm beginning to think that the DC Police administration makes the Keystone Cops look like an elite SWAT team.

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Shizzlemah

Uh, who cares where they are ?

Does DCPD have a reason to go knocking on 36000 doors to find some old wheelguns ?

mcp1810

I think there is one at Carl Rowan's house!

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obxned

What a bunch of Bozos!!

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There is only one gun law in this country, the 2nd Amendment. All else is bureaucratic nonsense that I choose to comply with or not at my discretion.

When governments make laws, they must consider the unintended consequences.

sgtD

I don't like the idea that this pro-registration movement is getting so much attention and little opposition. Law abiding citizens should not have to register their guns. Criminals are protected from registering their illegally owned guns under the 5th amendment. As well, tax money should not be wasted in an attemp to register guns as it can ultimately have absolutley no effect on crime. Just ask the Canadians how it worked for them.

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NKMG19

Can someone tell me just one good reason for gun registration. If criminals don't obey the law in the first place then what good is this registration. Is this so hard to understand or is this whole thing about being in control of people.

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gddyup

I don't like the idea of registration either, but it was Heller who piped up and said he would be ok with it as long as he could have a handgun in his house.

Be that as it may, it's completely shortsighted for the DC mayor, CLEO, and any other municipality to NOT have some idea or process thought out and ready to be implemented in case they DID loose that case, which they did.

You always hope for the best but PREPARE for the worst!!!

This right now is purely described as stoopidity at it's worst!!

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Phillep Harding

Uh-huh. Didn't you just answer your own question?

Oooooo. SLICE!

LenS

Part of this is setting up excuses for why they are dragging their feet . . . postponing the inevitable.

It's all about control!

It's not like there are no other states with registration programs that they could talk to if they WANTED to . . .

It's all a setup for a stalling effort.

When MA setup their current registration program, they had the BATFE computerize the old records for them. You can bet that BATFE kept a copy of that database and was more than happy to help out!!