PGPD Announces Anti-Gun Trafficking Initiative

By Michael Theis

In announcing a new anti-gun trafficking effort, the Prince George's County Police Department had a simple message for those who sell black market guns which make their way into the hands of local criminals: you will be caught.

"If you are illegally trafficking firearms today. you can either stop, or be in jail at the end of the year," said Henry Stawinski, Deputy Chief of the county police patrol bureau during a press conference announcing the initiative. 

Right now, police don't really have a clear picture on how the illegal guns used in many Prince George's County crimes find their way here. They hope the data collected from the initiative will help to identify the major sources of the firearms used in local crimes, according to Prince George's County's Chief of Police Mark Magaw. 

According to Stawinski, the new initiative, dubbed "Following the Firearm" is the result of three years of restructuring the department to more effectively hone in on gun traffickers. 

"We are very good at arresting the individual who uses the firearm, but up to this point, we have not sought to identify and prosecute those who traffic in those firearms," said Stawinski. 

The initiative is split between three phases, focusing on the supply-side of the gun market by increasing manpower and effort devoted to seizing illegal firearms off the streets. Investigators will then work to trace the history of the firearms through each gun's unique identifying characteristics with the goal of identifying the origin of the gun and how it entered the black market. 

"It'll begin to tell us where that gun came from," said Stawinski. 

Within 90 days, police hope to use the information gathered to begin prosecuting black-market gun traffickers. 

The efforts will be focused on the neighborhoods subject to Prince George's County's Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative, like Langley Park, East Riverdale and five others.