How hard is it to keep track of your firearms? Not very, if you’re a responsible gun owner.
But, for whatever reason (and we don’t want to speculate), the Philadelphia Sheriff’s office is missing over 200 firearms, reports local media.
Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal addressed the matter this week, blaming the lost guns on previous administrations.
“They left us with a crazy mess as far as the sheriff’s office and it’s not just the armory,” she complained.
City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart started the investigation over a year ago after she heard rumblings that guns were disappearing.
Rhynhart’s probe discovered that the whereabouts of more than 100 duty guns was unknown, and that an additional 109 confiscated or surrendered firearms were also missing.
Right now, investigators do not know where the majority of those guns ended up (Hopefully, not in the hands of known Mexican drug cartels).
“Our investigation did find evidence of trading at gun shops with city sheriff’s office guns,” Rhynhart said. “Very, very problematic.”
Meanwhile, Sheriff Bilal says things will change on her watch thanks to new technology.
“The armory is now secure with state-of-the-art security cameras, motion sensors,” Bilal said. “There are individually assigned entry codes to track specifically who enters and exits, at any given time, of the armory.”
SEE ALSO: Philadelphia Sues State of Pennsylvania, Blames State Government for Rising Crime Rates
In other Philadelphia-related news, last month Mayor Jim Kenney and leaders in the city council sued the Commonwealth in an effort to repeal the state’s preemption law regulating firearms.
Plaintiffs argued in the lawsuit that current law, “handcuffs local governments so that they cannot enact or enforce even simple, well-researched policies that have been repeatedly shown to save lives, while it also refuses to enact statewide gun safety laws.”
The suit asks the court to declare that the state government has violated Pennsylvanians’ right to life under the PA Constitution, and to vacate the Firearm Preemption Laws so that Philadelphia and other municipalities can implement whatever gun control laws they wish.
“By enacting and continuing to ratify the Firearm Preemption Laws, the General Assembly has increased gun violence in these municipalities, and they have affirmatively endangered the lives, health and safety of the Individual Petitioners,” the lawsuit states.
Perhaps instead of targeting the state as the nexus point for its problems with gun-related violence, the city of Philadelphia should put its own house in order starting with its Sheriff’s Department.
If the findings of the investigation are indeed true, and those the city entrusts the most to enforce the law are instead breaking it by flipping guns to local pawn shops (and who knows who else), the city’s inability to further restrict the 2A rights of law-abiding citizens is the least of its worries.
All it would take is for an out of town crew of Internal Investigators.
Have several Investigator’s for every deputy and former Sheriff with Warrants in hand to hit them all at once to likely get most of the stolen guns by them…!
“OK, SO HOW HARD IS IT FOR THE “LOCAL GUN SHOP” TO LOOK IN THEIR BOUND BOOK TO SEE WHO THEY ACQUIRED IT FROM ? To LEGALLY sell firearms, you need an FFL. Every acquisition sale or even repair needs to be logged in your records. SO, who brought it in ? If they dont have some type of documentation that shows that they legally acquired it from the Sheriff office, then it is a stolen weapon !” Ted
Aw c’mon Ted get real! Do you really think these mopes would have taken the guns they ILLEGALLY removed from the department armory or the evidence vault to a licensed FFL? These guns are either being kept by crooked deputies, sold on the street or secreted to be used at a later date as a “throw down” after a bad shooting.
Philly is nothing but a democratic corrupt sanctuary city run by a progressive liberal mayor. Nothing would surprise me coming from that cesspool. Lookup the word Jackass in the dictionary and you’ll probably see a picture of Mayor Jim Kenney.
You would be lucky if they took them to the local pawnshop, they would be logged into the ATF firearms bound book and reported to local law enforcement as required by law. More likely they went to a few bad apples in the sheriffs department. Maybe they should get a few warrants for former property room employees.
Yeah – sheriff’s dept loses guns – yawn.
What I find more interesting, is trying to REPEAL THE PREEMPTION STATUTE.
They tried to do that here in FL too – thank GOD they didn’t succeed.
What the preemption statute DOES – is allow LAW ABIDING CITIZENS to travel anywhere in the state, and not have to worry about DIFFERENT GUN LAWS in every municipality they cross.
Example: Here in Fort Lauderdale (Broward County) – we are composed of about 50 different cities (as well as areas that are “not incorporated” as part of any city). To get from my home, to my office – I cross FIVE DIFFERENT MUNICIPALITIES.
Now – imagine if EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM – had DIFFERENT LAWS when it comes to firearms. I carry concealed, and keep a rifle in the truck. I could drive two blocks from my home, into another city – and what is legal in my home city, might be ILLEGAL in the one next door.
PREEMPTION STATUTES ALLOW UNIFORMITY IN AN ENTIRE STATE.
The “Coward of Broward” (Scott Israel – who FAILED MISERABLY IN THE PRIMARY THIS TIME – AFTER BEING FIRED), sued down here, to remove the statute – so that HE COULD ENACT STRICTER LAWS than the REST OF THE STATE (he wanted to increase wait periods – change how firearms could be carried in vehicles, etc.).
FAILING TO CHARGE, TRY AND INCARCERATE CRIMINALS – is what leads to GREATER CRIME (gun and otherwise). ENFORCE THE LAWS ON THE BOOKS – and ALL CRIME WILL GO DOWN.
This is similar to NY’s “broken windows” policy. If you just let the little stuff slide by – you ENCOURAGE THE BIGGER STUFF.
Or you can move to OREGON – and walk around with a gram of heroin, 2 grams of blow/meth. 40 hits of acid, 40 doses of oxy or 40 doses of methadone (which ANYWHERE ELSE IS FEDERAL TRAFFICKING).
5 years and I’ll be in Panama. This place is almost NOT WORTH SAVING ANY MORE…
I have lived outside Philly since my birth . Besides going to a Flyers, Eagles, Phillies game (F basketball) there is no reason to even go into the city. South philly has a few low key local restaurants, but walk a few blocks to far and you are in shitville. 90% of the city is not safe and hasn’t been for decades. South street is trash, love park is pointless, the museum steps is a nice 20 min reminiscing about rocky , beyond that good luck parking and dealing with the aggressive street vendors. I have seen 2 all out shootouts in the last 25 years in Philly simply by driving from one place or another. Kensington is so well known for its open drug market that we literally have people traveling from other states to get their drugs. Like most democrat run cities philly is a giant mess that will recover in my life time. For the mayor and his soros bought DA , to try and restrict law abiding citizens from protecting themselves should be a crime. Is the mayor that ignorant to think Pa residents with CCW licenses are the ones doing the shootings? Our country has some seriously flawed leaders.
OK, SO HOW HARD IS IT FOR THE “LOCAL GUN SHOP” TO LOOK IN THEIR BOUND BOOK TO SEE WHO THEY ACQUIRED IT FROM ? To LEGALLY sell firearms, you need an FFL. Every acquisition sale or even repair needs to be logged in your records. SO, who brought it in ? If they dont have some type of documentation that shows that they legally acquired it from the Sheriff office, then it is a stolen weapon !
Maybe Governor Wolf is arming Antifa and BLM
I would bet good money the department staff has or did have the weapons, I had a pistol confiscated once and know for a fact it was never checked in as evidence and was passed among the local deputies….yes I did get it back after threatening to sue the sheriff…
Baltimores crime and murder rate lead to statewide laws banning many firearms including those that are seldom if ever used in crimes. The entire state was punished for what was happening in a very few square miles of Baltimore city. And what was the result you might ask? Gun Crime and murder in Baltimore has skyrocketed and has stayed low everywhere else in the state. I know cops that refused to register their legally owned firearms because they dont trust the gov’t that they are part of.
Rest assured, Sheriff ROCHELLE Bilal and City Controller REBECCA Rhynhart will be taking care of bid’ness! Are there any men left to run things in Filthadelphia? By the looks of da Sheriff she might have accidentally eaten a few dem guns herself….
Men ran that shitshow for decades prior – it was still a hole
Lost 200 guns but found a few thousand extra Biden votes. Philly’s become a putrid swamp.
I’m sure they were out on the streets touting “Vote for this Biden guy. Nice fella. Your choice, an applebees gift card or a Glock 19?” I’m pretty sure we all know what that choice would have been. In that pisshole of a city this is a plausible scenario. You all know it.
“Very, very problematic”…..you don’t say🤔