Suits: Seattle on pace for most recovered guns in a single year
Jul 5, 2023, 12:24 PM | Updated: Oct 1, 2024, 6:06 am
After an unprovoked Belltown shooting left a pregnant woman and her unborn baby dead last month, Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz spoke with The Seattle Times about guns passing through the local black market.
“Chief Diaz said the highest number of guns Seattle Police Department (SPD) has recovered in any five-month period was in the first five months of this year, 629 guns by the end of May,” host Bryan Suits said on KTTH 770 AM in response to the story. “That’s the highest number of guns recovered in a five-month period, putting the department on pace to meet or exceed the 2018 record of 1,408 guns recovered in a single year.”
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The SPD announced the formation of a community violence task force last June in response to increasing levels of crime in the summer months, with Aurora Avenue, downtown, the Central District, and the city’s South End being the task force’s main priorities.
“The other issue that they’re dealing with are what are called the 80% guns, which are now totally illegal in Washington,” Suits said. “But these are guns that come as a kit. They’re 80% completed. You have to do some drilling and then drop some parts in. And it’s a bit of a crapshoot. It may work, it may not.”
“So, for instance, the teens that were seen robbing 7-Eleven last week, and the two with the guns who decided to just randomly shoot the cashier and a patron of the 7-11. But the guns were not functioning, and they were receding the magazine and stuff like this. They were trying to make the weapons function,” Suits said. “They were not functioning, I would bet pounds to donuts that they were kit guns that they probably bought from someone for 400 bucks or whatever. They never took them out to the woods and test-fired them or whatever you do.”
Listen to the full discussion above.
Listen to the Bryan Suits Show weekday mornings from 6-9 a.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.
