Salt Lake Police Chief Ruben Ortega has attempted to gain support for the city's proposed five-day waiting period for 18- to 25-year-old gun purchasers by countering opposing arguments that gang members steal rather than purchase their guns.
Ortega presented figures showing that so far this year 208 guns have been reported stolen in the Salt Lake area. He also reported that during this same period his department had confiscated or recovered 225 guns. Of those 225 guns, Ortega said that only 18, or 8 percent, had been reported stolen and the other 207, or 92 percent, were "untraceable" and, therefore, assumed to have been purchased.In making such a carefully crafted statement, Ortega inferred that these 207 guns had been purchased by gang members from federally licensed firearms dealers. A fact that Ortega neglected to admit was that many of these guns were very likely stolen outside the Salt Lake area.
What did Ortega mean when he said these 207 guns were untraceable? The truth is that any modern firearm with its serial number intact can be easily traced from the manufacturer directly to its first legal purchaser.
According to a department spokesman, Ortega made little or no attempt to trace these guns through the manufacturer because of manpower restrictions. What the chief should have told us was that these "untraceable" guns were likely either not reported stolen from the Salt Lake area or the serial numbers of these guns were not readily available in the NCIC database because they had not been recorded by the owner prior to their theft.
Although I adamantly support any legitimate effort to rid criminals, especially violent youths, any access to guns, I likewise detest half-truths, political posturing and ordinances already proven in many other parts of the country to have no effect on violent crime.
Michael L. Thompson
Holladay