Saturday - June 29, 2013

Guns? Whatever. Somewhere around here. I think.

But what these cops seeming DON’T have is gun control. As in the “hey, have you seen my machine gun? It was right here last year!” kind of gun control. Lost, stolen, strayed, or mislaid. Somebody has misplaced hundreds and hundreds of firearms. Oops.

The U.S. Park Police is failing to adequately keep track of its firearms, creating an environment in which weapons are vulnerable to theft or misuse, according to a government report released Friday.

Due to “a lackadaisical attitude toward firearms management” by commanders, investigators said they found “credible evidence of conditions that would allow for theft and misuse of firearms, and the ability to conceal the fact if weapons were missing.”

In a force of approximately 640 officers, the report says, hundreds of weapons were not properly accounted for. The auditors also allege that the agency has more than 1,400 extra weapons, including 477 military-style automatic and semiautomatic rifles.

The head of the Park Police officers’ union, Ian Glick, said there are shortcomings in the “antiquated system of weapon tracking,” but public safety was never put in jeopardy.

“None of these weapons were ever seized in a crime, or found on someone who shouldn’t have one,” he said.

No, perhaps not. Not yet anyway. Still, that doesn’t excuse the attitude.

The U.S. Park Police has lost track of a huge supply of handguns, rifles and shotguns, according to a report released Thursday on the law enforcement agency responsible for safeguarding the National Mall and critical American landmarks.

In the scathing report, the inspector general’s office of the Department of Interior faults staff at the agency for having no idea how many weapons they control and says the department has no clear policies or procedures for investigating missing weapons. The office said top managers, including the police chief, have shown a “lackadaisical attitude toward firearms management.”

“Historical evidence indicates that this indifference is a product of years of inattention to administrative detail and management principles,” deputy inspector general Mary Kendall wrote to Jonathan Jarvis, the director of the National Park Service, in a letter that accompanies the report.

Glick Calls Glitch on Glocks
While the tracking system has its failings, he said, “all the weapons are accounted for. Every weapon, every stick of ammo, everything is accounted for. But it’s not accounted for in the National Park Service weapons inventory computer system.”

The National Park Service declined to respond to Glick’s specific assertion. But it said it has immediately ordered a complete weapons inventory, to address the “significant, systemic firearms management problems” identified in the report.

Oh, so it’s merely utterly inept record keeping. Come on, who has time for that? We’ve got to guard this giant granite statue of some guy on a horse! You never know where terrorists or graffiti artists will strike next! Lock ‘n load! Oh wait, can’t find my gun. Screw it, just buy some more. 

Yeah right.

You citizens though had better keep your guns properly stored, segregated, and secured. With all appropriate permits. And no more ammo than we think is sufficient. And heaven help you if one gun goes missing two whole days and you don’t report it to the authorities.

Boy am I getting tired of the daily government scandals that boil down to “Are you stupid, or evil? Or both?” It’s like they’re our overlords and have no accountability whatsoever.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/29/2013 at 10:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Government • Guns and Gun Control •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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