Number of recovered weapons soars Metro transit police are confiscating more guns from riders, finding more firearms in the past two years than in the previous 12 years combined, according to agency statistics.
Police recovered 65 weapons last year, including a Remington 12-gauge shotgun, a 9 mm Beretta, a Colt .38 semiautomatic handgun and rounds of ammunition. That marked a huge spike over the 21 firearms seized in 2009.
| Guns confiscated by Metro Transit Police | |
| 2010 | 65 |
| 2009 | 21 |
| 2008 | 7 |
| 2007 | 6 |
| 2006 | 6 |
| 2005 | 4 |
| 2004 | 10 |
| 2003 | 6 |
| 2002 | 3 |
| 2001 | 3 |
| 2000 | 7 |
| 1999 | 4 |
| 1998 | 6 |
| 1997 | 5 |
| Source: Metro | |
Both years’ tallies are far higher than previous years when transit police recovered 10 or fewer guns per year between 1997 and 2008, according to Metro statistics obtained in a public records request.
“It’s obviously disturbing if people are carrying around concealed weapons on the system,” said Justin Keating, Metro’s police union attorney.
He said police officers have been finding more weapons as they frisk people. Transit police are issued bulletproof vests and have been trained to be careful, but he said his officers are concerned. “Of course they should be nervous, as should riders,” he said.
Metro spokesman Dan Stessel acknowledged the agency is finding more guns in the system but sees the situation differently. “The system is safe,” he said. “I don’t think people should look at these numbers and be concerned about riding Metro.” Instead, he said, they should take comfort that police are getting those weapons off the streets.
Guns are allowed in the Metro system only in Virginia — and gunslingers there need a concealed weapon permit if the firearm isn’t visible. But as soon as a train or bus crosses into Maryland or the District, Stessel said, the guns are considered illegal.
It’s not clear why so many more guns have been found in recent years. The agency’s new policy of random bag checks does not appear to have affected the numbers since the searches began in late December and no guns were found then.
Serious crime on the transit system surged in 2010 to the highest level in at least six years. Yet the increase in gun seizures was far greater than the increase in crime.
Meanwhile, the spike in firearms inside Metro’s tunnels, stations and buses does not appear to be reflect what’s happening outside them. Data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which traces guns for law enforcement agencies around the country, show that the number of firearms submitted for tracing in D.C., Virginia and Maryland stayed mostly steady between 2006 and 2009, with a slight decrease in D.C. and a slight increase in Virginia. Statistics from 2010 were not available, bureau spokeswoman Donna Sellers said.
Metro hasn’t changed its policing strategies, Stessel said. “But there is obviously a high vigilance in the system and that could be a reason why we are recovering more guns and taking them off the streets,” he said.
The agency also changed its tracking system in 2009, he said, so it’s possible that data for earlier years do not include all confiscated weapons. But the numbers already had started to rise in 2009 when the old system was still in use.
And, Keating said, longtime transit police officers have noticed a change. “Old timers say it didn’t used to be this way,” he said.
