In a startling revelation, documents obtained by the News4 I-Team have revealed that the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington D.C. was the only legal gun dealer in the nation’s capital for a period of seven months in 2020 and 2021. This means that for over half a year, the only place for D.C. residents to obtain a handgun legally was through their local police department.
Despite the shocking nature of this news, it has only recently come to light due to the efforts of the Brady United Against Gun Violence group, which has obtained federal documents showing a concerning number of MPD-sold guns ending up at crime scenes.
This has prompted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to place MPD into their “Demand 2 Program,” designed to give extra scrutiny to dealers with a high number of crime guns.
It is important to note that MPD’s gun dealing was not the typical gun store experience that many gun owners may be used to. Instead, D.C. residents had to go through a convoluted process that involved purchasing a gun from a store in Virginia or Maryland, having it shipped to the MPD’s headquarters, and then undergoing a federal background check. This process was implemented due to the strict gun regulations in D.C., which were challenged in court.
However, what is truly concerning is that the MPD’s gun dealing resulted in a large number of guns ending up at crime scenes in a relatively short period of time. So many, in fact, that the ATF felt the need to put the department into their “Demand 2 Program,” which is usually reserved for only 2% of gun dealers across the country.
Shockingly, the MPD is not the only dealer in the Washington D.C. area to receive a letter from the ATF. In fact, there are a total of 14 dealers in D.C., Northern Virginia, and the Maryland suburbs that have received this letter. This means that at least 25 of the guns sold by the MPD in 2020 and 2021 were recovered at crime scenes in 2021 alone.
Brady’s General Counsel, Josh Scharff, stated, “We are not anti-gun dealers at Brady. We are anti-irresponsible-gun dealing.” He went on to say that D.C. residents deserve to know more about how their police department was responsible for bringing in over 8,000 guns into their community.
Even local gun dealers have expressed their concern and criticism of the MPD’s gun dealing policies. Shawn Poulin, owner of DC Security Associates, stated that he was not surprised to see the MPD on the list of dealers with guns recovered at crime scenes. He also criticized their handling of the gun business and expressed worry over the fact that the department had to inspect and enforce themselves.
The MPD has since stopped operating as a gun dealer, but the consequences of their actions cannot be ignored. D.C. residents deserve answers as to why so many guns were ending up at crime scenes and if their loved ones were shot with a gun that the MPD helped bring into the District.
It is also troubling that the department made over a million dollars from the transfers, yet it did not use those funds for stricter oversight or scrutiny of its own gun dealing practices.
This revelation also raises the question of whether the MPD intended to truly uphold public safety in the District. Their motives seem more financial than anything else, as they charged $125 for each firearm transfer, bringing in over a million dollars.
