This is how a media report intended to “raise the alarm” on guns in the community is done . . . Weapon of choice: Police report more guns on streets than ever before
Des Moines police report that there are more guns on the streets than ever before.
According to the Des Moines Police Department, guns were the most-used weapon in the city’s 25 homicides of 2017.
OMG! Of the homicides that were committed, most of them were accomplished using a firearm! It’s unprecedented!
Or is it? The report provides zero support for the claim that there are “more guns on the streets than ever before.” As for murders, after peaking at 19 in 2015, the number of murders in Des Moines actually dropped to 13 in 2016, a 32% decline. And name one city of any size in America in which the majority of homicides weren’t the result of gunfire.
“For years, if I caught a gang member thug and he had a gun, I could pretty much bet my paycheck that gun was going to be stolen,” (Des Moines police Sgt. Paul) Parizek said.
In a growing trend, Parizek said police have been confiscating an increasing number of guns that are legally purchased but end up in the wrong hands.
“This is something we haven’t seen in years prior,” Parizek said.
So that apparently means that more of the guns Parizek and his fellow boys in blue are finding “in the wrong hands” now were either stolen from a legal gun owner or obtained through a straw purchase. We’re just speculating, but that could be due to the fact that groups like the NSSF are working harder with retails to prevent smash-and-grab gun store burglaries. So Des Moines’ criminal class is having to use other avenues to get their guns.
And no mainstream media report would be complete without some non sequiturs designed to associate enhanced gun rights with criminal activity.
Authorities say legislation could be to blame.
In 2010, Iowa became a conceal and carry state. This past July, stand your ground became law and suppressors became legal.
Iowans have the right to carry guns, but Parizek said that can create a gray area for authorities.
“I don’t know what your license is to carry that gun,” Parizek said. “I don’t know what your intentions are.”
Just a guess, but their intentions are probably to protect themselves from death or grievous bodily harm before the police can arrive. And what, precisely, do stand your ground laws and legal suppressors have to do with the (unsupported) assertion that there are more illegal guns on the mean streets of Des Moines?
So this is a poorly sourced non-story thrown together by a young reporter that’s designed to lead her readers to conclude that civilian gun ownership is a threat to both police and the general welfare of Iowans. Same as it ever was.