U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- Philly, we’ve got a problem.
The city that’s got a mayor waging a gun control campaign against law-abiding gun owners can’t account for more than 200 of their own guns. Philadelphia’s Sheriff’s Office was blamed in a report for failing to account for 210 taxpayer-funded service firearms and firearms that were seized. They went missing between 1977-2015, but only came to light in 2019 when a confidential complaint tipped off authorities that “15 long guns” were missing.
That began an investigation that showed the city’s missing guns issue was 173 percent bigger than what was first believed. The people tasked with enforcing laws, including court security and prisoner transfers, couldn’t follow their own regulations and keep track of their guns.
Philadelphia’s gun control cabal, including Democrat Mayor Jim Kenney, is sure to miss the irony here. For clarity’s sake, this is the situation detailed clearly. The same people who want to use law enforcement to curb the gun rights of law-abiding citizens and track and confiscate guns can’t even keep track and control the ones for which they’re responsible. Officials are saying there’s nothing to see here, move along. It was a problem with the old regime.
A year-long investigation by the City Controller’s office blames “physical disorganization,” and “poor record-keeping” by the sheriff’s office. That might have been obvious when investigators saw firearms in piles on the floor and haphazardly stored. Firearms belonging to the sheriff’s office and those that were seized were comingled and some were still loaded when stored.
Seventy-one firearms recovered in the investigation are “unknown,” meaning there’s no originating paperwork. Investigators can’t determine of the firearms were duty firearms purchased by taxpayers or if they were seized, and if they were seized, from whom they were taken. Sixty-seven firearms that were seized were never documented by serial numbers, making origin determination impossible.
The Controller’s investigation believes that at least 25 of the 101 taxpayer-purchased sheriff’s firearms just weren’t returned by deputies when they left the force. Another word for that is theft. It’s worse, though. The City Controller’s investigation found evidence of trading at gun shops with city sheriff’s office guns. At least 13 seized firearms and one service firearm were traded for 10 new firearms through a local firearm retailer. The retailer provided investigators receipts and records of the transactions and there’s no allegations or evidence of wrongdoing by the firearm retailer, but serious questions remain for sheriff’s authorities for illegal transactions.
That doesn’t wash. The ones who were supposed to be minding those who were minding the armory had no idea what was going on. It might have been because Mayor Kenney has been too busy on a campaign to shave off Second Amendment rights in his city. He pushed to illegally enact his own gun control legislation even after Pittsburgh had been rebuked by Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court for a similar attempt in 1993 and was again rejected in 2019 by an Alleghany County judge.
Mayor Kenney invoked gun control to protect police after an hours-long shootout with a criminal occurred in 2019 when officers attempted to serve a warrant. He said stricter gun control was needed after several officers were shot and injured. But Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said the mayor was grandstanding on his own failure to enforce laws. The suspect was previously arrested nearly a dozen times, for charges and convictions that involved illegal possession of guns, drug dealing, and aggravated assault. He was sentenced by a federal judge to 55 months in one instance. He was previously convicted for illegal possession of firearms.
The suspect that shot officers was a convicted violent criminal, who was barred from possessing a firearm. That didn’t stop Mayor Kenney from capitalizing on the shocking event to push his gun control agenda.
“There are plenty of laws. It’s not a lack of gun laws,” Johnson explained in a National Review interview about the suspect, Maurice Hill. “Hill is not in the business of obeying laws.”
The mayor of the City of Brotherly Love can’t honestly look his fellow citizens in the eye and answer that he’s properly accounting for the guns for which he’s responsible. Mayor Kenney is less interested in doing his job to be responsible for the city’s firearms and more interested in pushing his own gun control agenda.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
And we the people are expected to accept the vote counting of the Nov.3rd election in Philadelphia and the county, they can’t even run their own property room or armory.
I wonder if they also have a problem with the drugs they have taken from bad people disappearing out of their evidence room.
Happens all the time. Why? Hire people who lack integrity and then have no consequence for wrongdoing: No one will lose their job, their dental insurance, or their pension. No one will be fined or go to jail. No one will be sued. If anyone is charged with a crime, a union lawyer will defend the person. This all started from a single confidential complaint. Dozens of bad cops who were not directly involved knew what the other bad cops (who were directly involved) were doing. I wonder how many of those firearms were the property of individuals who did… Read more »
I define a “good LEO” as one who honors their oath to the United States Constitution—-Period.
Define honoring their oath to the US Constitution.
Consider:
I was not speaking of this incident, sorry for the confusion. I was stating how I determine a good cop from a bad one.
Hi, I’m not trying to argue with you, but do you believe a LEO who does any of the things I listed is a “good LEO?”
I am supportive of all good LEOs and I think many of them have an extremely difficult job and don’t get paid much. However, any that do one or more of the things I listed are not “good LEOs” to me.
That does not just apply to this incident but in general.
Not only no, but hell no do I consider them good LEOs! I completely agree with your post. Those officers should be wearing bracelets. Maybe even their own bracelets. That would be epic.
Let me just add, I know with certainty the Oath LEOs swear to in my state also swear to uphold and obey the laws of the state and their particular jurisdiction. Perhaps that distinction is where we got off track.
I suspect we have been in agreement this whole time.
Safe ride and Happy Thanksgiving JSNMGC
Ha! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
Also, Happy Thanksgiving to all the good LEOs out there – many of us appreciate the BS (in its many forms) you put up with everyday. Thank you.
there is never any accountability for leftists in power. look at hillary, all the lawyers working for mueller who deleted their government phones before handing them in.
people in power need to be held to a higher level of scrutiny, because like the saying goes, “power corrupts”.
Kenney is like so many other Communist Party Left Wingers! He runs around with his cranium shoved firmly up between his gluteus maximus and believes he is doing brilliant work (in his own mind)! ANYONE who voted for this P.O.S. is as F.O.S as he is!!!
Wow, is this one of those don’t be pushing gun control if you can’t keep track of your own guns story?
Reminds me of that scattered scat-show they wanted us to believe was a legitimate election. Not buyin’ this either. I’m not from Pennsylvania but wonder why Philadelphia has both a police department, with 6,300 officers and 800 civilians, AND a sheriff’s office with estimates between 175 and 400 deputies and staff. It already is a consolidated (aka independent) city defined as one that occupies the entire land mass of the county. The average Deputy Sheriff salary in Philadelphia, PA is $117,430 as of October 28, 2020, but the range typically falls between $110,870 and $124,560. Having about 200 deputies lose… Read more »