There goes that myth: Only government is responsible with its firearms.

[DucatiMonster696]

The great part about understanding that government is usually failure prone and that it inevitably ends up being horrible at what it is supposed to do "right" is that eventually you are proven right. The sad part is that you are proven right. No doubt this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what they are willing to admit to or know are able to prove with the current information they have but who knows how long this has been ongoing or what actually ended up missing.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-06-27/local/40230084_1_u-s-park-police-police-force-weapons

Park Police lost track of thousands of weapons, inspector general’s report says

By Peter Hermann,June 27, 2013

The U.S. Park Police has lost track of thousands of handguns, rifles and machine guns in what a government watchdog agency concluded is the latest example of mismanagement on a police force trusted to protect millions of visitors to the city’s iconic monuments.

Yikes!! /OP input

There is no indication that police guns got into the hands of criminals, but the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of the Interior warned that the Park Police might not know if they had. In a scathing report, the authors said there is “credible evidence of conditions that would allow for theft and misuse of firearms, and the ability to conceal the fact if weapons were missing.”

Don't you love the word "but..." lolol /OP input

The probe was launched in part because of an anonymous tip that Park Police officers were improperly taking weapons home. Investigators discovered two instances in which that had occurred, but they found many other troubling examples of mismanagement, according to the report.

Investigators found 1,400 guns that were supposed to have been destroyed or melted down. An additional 198 handguns donated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are sitting in a building in Anacostia but don’t show up in official records.

In another instance, the agency in October 2011 sent a list of 18 pistols, shotguns and rifles it described as lost or stolen to a national database. But it never launched an internal investigation. The guns, it turned out, had been destroyed or given to other agencies — or they were still in Park Police possession, according to the report. One Remington shotgun remains missing.

“Commanders up to and including the chief of police have a lackadaisical attitude toward firearms management,” wrote Mary L. Kendall, the deputy inspector general. “Historical evidence indicates that the indifference is a product of years of inattention to administrative detail.”

Investigators took an unusually harsh tone in part because they said similar problems found in 2008 and 2009 were never fixed — a symptom of “the decade-long theme of inaction and indifference” of top Park Police managers. The Washington Post obtained an advance copy of the report.

Waaaaahhhh...inaction and indifference within a government agency? Say ain't so Joe. /OP input

It’s unclear how long the agency has not been keeping track of its weapons, but one example in the report documents how a former police chief’s gun was missing for a decade and no one knew.

Are they serious, a full freaking decade??? WTF. /OP input

The report does not spare the current chief, Teresa Chambers, who returned to her post in 2011 after she was suspended and then fired eight years earlier for criticizing staffing levels in a Washington Post article. The investigators accused Chambers and her staff of harboring a “lackadaisical attitude” but also noted that top commanders frequently gave her wrong or outdated data, which she relied on in signing off on gun inventory reports.

A Park Police spokesman did not return calls seeking comment, and Chambers was not available. Jeffrey Olson, a spokesman for the National Park Service, which oversees the Park Police, said Chambers has been ordered to implement the inspector general’s recommendations “without delay,” including an immediate weapons inventory.

“I have no tolerance for this management failure,” Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis said in a statement. “The safety and security of our visitors and employees remain our highest priority.”

Problems uncovered by the inspector general include two officers who took guns home without permission, including a semiautomatic rifle present during the presidential inauguration in January. The report also found that a former chief kept his department-issued sidearm for 10 years after retirement without anyone noticing.

Investigators concluded that the Park Police not only can’t keep track of the guns it has but it hasn’t disposed of guns more suited for collectors than lawmen. The agency still has 20 M1 Garand rifles, the standard field gun in World War II, and four Prohibition-era tommy guns. The inspector general noted that these weapons are of “limited” use.

The Park Police has about 600 officers deployed primarily in Washington, New York City and San Francisco. They patrol Park Service property, including the Mall and many of the District’s national monuments and parkland. Their jurisdiction includes vast areas of downtown Washington and some of the busiest tourist attractions in the country.

Five years ago, the inspector general chastised the agency for failing to “adequately perform” its two stated missions — functioning as an urban police department while protecting national heritage centers. The review found officers to have low morale, lack of confidence in command and an inability to keep its fiscal affairs in order.

 

[werepossum]

Anyone who watched the Vince Foster debacle knows the Park Police are a total joke. I'm not so much worried that they lost their guns as that they might be given more.

 

[waggy]

silly argument. i don't think anyone really thought the government was more responsible with the guns then the average citizen.

 

[BoberFett]

silly argument. i don't think anyone really thought the government was more responsible with the guns then the average citizen.

Until there are laws being floated to ban government employees (including military and police) from owning weapons, then it's not a silly argument.

 

[Lithium381]

These are repeated with some frequency. It's an "accidental" fast & furious. . .

 

[Matt1970]

Everyone knows the police and military are the only ones responsible enough to carry firearms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=p1_EoRZOVes#t=48s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UOI9ahGxMfk#t=1s

 

[KB]

What do Park Police need with machineguns? They planning on fighting a bear army?

Where I work I can often see SWAT teams practicing boat raid drills. The funny thing is, this is DNR swat. Yes the Department of Natural Resources has a SWAT team. I guess they need machine guns to raid poachers houses?

 

[EagleKeeper]

What do Park Police need with machineguns? They planning on fighting a bear army?

Where I work I can often see SWAT teams practicing boat raid drills. The funny thing is, this is DNR swat. Yes the Department of Natural Resources has a SWAT team. I guess they need machine guns to raid poachers houses?

And where do the druggies and poachers work - DNR land.
And they do not utilize sling shots

 

[justoh]

The thread title suggests that the thread would involve discussion/argumentation that non government entities/actors are responsible, yet the op only talks about the govt..... change title?

Tip: to prove the myth wrong, introduce a counterexample of any responsible non govt actor. Examples of govt irresponsibility is entirely irrelevant to thread topic, as specific instances of irresponsibility says nothing about whether or not only the govt is responsible with firearms. Glad I could be of assistance.