More Time Wasted When They Could be Doing Something USEFUL

JoinTogether has this little nugget about cops wasting valuable man- sorry, person-hours.

N.Y. Police Collect Forgotten Firearms

An initiative by the Onondaga County Sheriff's Department in upstate New York encourages residents to search their attics, basements, and closets for long-forgotten firearms, the Syracuse Post Standard reported June 4.

"Family members who originally have owned the guns could have died and the relatives don't have permits," said sheriff's department spokesman Sgt. John D'Eredita.

To prevent unwanted or forgotten guns from ending up on the streets, law-enforcement agencies are reading obituaries daily to match names with pistol permit holders.

Oh, yeah, I'm sure this is really effective at keeping guns off the streets. People are just waiting for their relatives to die so they can sell their firearms on the black market.

Jeebus.

In addition, the Department of Vital Statistics in Syracuse is including a form letter when it sends out death certificates to encourage surviving family members to contact the sheriff's department if the deceased had weapons.

"I've had more than 500 turned in just in the past three years," said Detective Ray Herrick of the pistol licensing bureau with the sheriff's department. "In that same period of time, there's been another 1,100 I'm trying to track down that belonged to people who have died."

Wow! Five hundred recovered and a whopping 1,100 unaccounted for! In three years! Be still my beating heart! How about doing something about the drug dealers who do a side business out of the trunks of their cars? Think that might be a bit more effective? Or is Onondaga County kinda like Mayberry there, Deputy Fife Detective Herrik? Tell me, did anybody get compensated for this valuable property? Or did they just surrender it to the State, gratis? And is this all you do, or does it cut into the backlog of robbery, rape, and assault investigations you have on your hands? Hm?

Herrick said many of the guns being turned in are loaded, and many family members don't even realize there are bullets inside.

Then don't you think if sex-ed is so important, that gun safety might not be a bad thing to teach?

"It's just crazy out there -- guns under people's beds, in bookcases, linen closets, attics, basements and sometimes there are guns people living there don't even know about," he said.

Yeah, that's crazy alright. Everybody in the house ought to know what guns are there, and how to use them.

It's no business of the government.