Category: All About Guns
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) released data on guns used in crimes from 2017 to 2021, including the ages of those who originally purchased the guns, in its first report on firearms in 20 years.
The ATF calls guns used in crimes “crime guns”, and more than half the time, the person who originally bought the weapon was not the person using it during the crime, according to the data. Oftentimes, the gun purchaser and the criminal using the gun didn’t know each other.
More than 1 million firearms were reported stolen from 2017 to 2021, according to the ATF.
In Nashville, 269 guns have been stolen from cars so far this year, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. There is some concern those firearms could be used to commit future crimes.
Community activist Clemmie Greenlee, founder and CEO of Mothers Over Murder, told News 2 that statistic is worrisome.
“If I have allowed my gun to be somewhere unsafe and someone got ahold of it, a 12-year-old, 13-year-old, and they went and committed a crime, I’m just as guilty as they are,” Greenlee said.
In addition, the ATF found 3% more guns used in crimes from 2019 to 2020 were originally purchased by people ages 18 to 24. During that same time, 5% fewer guns purchased by 35-year-olds and up were used in crimes, the data showed.
Regardless of the age of the gun purchaser, if a firearm gets into the wrong hands, it can contribute to the gun violence problem, which Dr. Kelsey Gastineau, a Vanderbilt pediatric hospitalist, considers a public health crisis.
“Firearms are the leading cause of death for our kids in Tennessee and the United States, so wherever the firearm is coming from is a huge issue,” Gastineau said. “When we’re thinking about firearms that come from, (if they’re) stolen, whether they come from vehicles or things like that, we need to think about solutions that will work to help reduce those, because those will eventually reduce injuries for children and teens in this state.”
Greenlee told News 2 she wants to see the gun-purchasing age requirement increase. In addition, she is advocating against a bill she said would loosen gun restrictions.
“You think the data is speaking now; we’re going to be in trouble,” Greenlee said. “I always call it a bloody summer; it’s going to be a triple bloody summer if we don’t get ahold of these guns.”
In addition, the ATF has seen a new problem over the years involving privately made firearms, or ghost guns, which cannot be traced. According to the feds, ghost guns are being used more often in crimes.
To read the full report from the ATF, click here.
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta released a report on Monday showing a slight reduction in the number of people who need to have their legal weapons taken away because they’ve either been convicted of certain crimes or have some sort of restraining order against them.
The program is part of California’s Armed and Prohibited Persons System (also known as APPS), which has been tracking firearm owners since 2006 who are prevented from having them because they were convicted of a felony, certain misdemeanors, have a restraining order against them or had a mental health triggering event.
California is the only state in the country with this kind of system.
The California Department of Justice’s 2022 report showed the number of people on the backlog dropped by about 3% compared to 2021, with now 23,869 people on the list of people that should have their weapons taken away. More than 9,200 of those cases are considered active, while the rest are considered “pending”, which the DOJ defines as cases in which agents have exhausted all leads or have determined the person is no longer within the state’s jurisdiction.
“Last year our team knocked on more doors than ever before in the history of the APPS program,” Bonta said, noting special agents made 24,000 contacts in 2022. Bonta said more people were removed from the apps list than added that year.
The report shows special agents seized 1,437 guns, 64% of which were known through APPS, while 36% were firearms that weren’t tracked in the database or illegal. Most of the weapons recovered are handguns, but the Department of Justice investigators noted long guns, ghost guns, and assault weapons have been found. A grenade launcher was displayed in Monday’s presentation.
Bonta said several efforts are underway to address the issues that have plagued the program for years, which were at the center of a legislative hearing in January. Primarily, Bonta wants to permanently fund a requirement for courts to confiscate the weapons at the time a firearm owner is convicted of a crime, and fund a similar program with those met with a restraining order.
Assm. Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, said the DOJ’s report was mixed news.
“I think we’d have much greater reduction if we were a little bit smarter in how we’re implementing this,” he said.
Lackey recently went on an APPS ride along, where he saw first-hand how tedious the process is. He said he supports Bonta’s efforts to make the system more efficient, including an update to the old technology and the numerous databases it requires.
“They’ve got my complete support for that undertaking because what’s the cost of a life? This should be a priority,” Lackey said.
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Some more Red Hot Gospel there!
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The heroes who terminated the gunman at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee last week are speaking out.
Officer Rex Engelbert of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department led the charge.
Upon entry, it took him approximately 2 minutes and 15 seconds to engage the 28-year-old shooter.
“I really had no business being where I was,” Engelbert said after he responded to the call of an “active shooter” while en route to the Police Academy for routine administrative tasks.
“You can call it fate or God or whatever you want. I can’t count on my hands the irregularities that put me in that position when the call for service went out for an active deadly aggressor at a school,” he said.
Engelbert was joined by Detective Sgt. Jeff Mathes. The two men had never met before. But along with several others, they answered the call to go inside the private Christian school to stop the shooter.
“I had never seen Rex in my life,” Mathes explained, as reported by WSMV. “When we got there, he had already unlocked the door. Not knowing what I was going into, I walked through that door without hesitation.”
The responding officers immediately ran toward the gunfire.
“I looked for the nearest staircase I could find, because I could tell [the gunfire] was above my head,” said Englebert, who added, “I couldn’t get to it fast enough.”
Police Chief John Drake applauded the actions of his men.
“They did what we were trained to do,” Drake said. “They got prepared and went right in – knowing that every moment wasted could cost lives.”
“Their efforts also saved lives,” he continued. “They were able to protect these kids as well.”
“No one ever said it would be easy,” Drake said. “But they said it would be worth it. I’m totally proud of my men for what they did.”