One of the things that government bureaucrats at all levels (Federal, State, county, municipal) seem to love is reports. Why do people sneeze when they get near lots of dust? Write a report. Why do people chew their food before swallowing? Write a report. What are ways that we can get people to wear red shirts instead of blue shirts? Write a report.
Never mind that the overwhelming majority of bureaucrats don’t do anything with those reports. In many cases, it looks like they use the funding of and writing of reports to justify their jobs.
But in at least one American city, one of those reports seems to make clear who shouldn’t be running any kind of gun control program for that area. Candace Hathaway writes,
Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal disputed a recent controller report claiming her office is missing 185 guns.
Earlier this week, the city’s acting controller, Charles Edacheril, released an audit report as a follow-up to a 2020 report that previously found that the sheriff’s office could not account for more than 200 firearms.
The Office of the Controller reported in November 2020 that the sheriff’s office could not locate 101 service guns and 109 confiscated firearms.
Then-Controller Rebecca Rhynhart called the findings “unacceptable.”
“The public needs to trust that the Sheriff’s Office is a reliable steward of its own property, as well as the personal property given to the Sheriff’s Office for safekeeping,” Rhynhart stated. “I want to thank Sheriff Bilal and her office for their cooperation during this investigation. While many of the issues identified predate Sheriff Bilal’s administration, I hope that she will take quick action to track down the missing guns, if possible, and ensure proper maintenance of the gun inventory moving forward.”
Now, regardless of who is in the wrong in this situation, one thing is abundantly clear: There are folks working for the city of Philadelphia who have no business keeping track of guns. Because they obviously can’t.
And that’s true of all governments, not just Philadelphia’s. The people pushing for gun control are exactly the people least qualified to run a gun control organization.
This is just another reason why gun control never has and never will work to reduce gun violence.
