The U.S. Park Service Lost Track of an Entire Arsenal of Guns
The U.S. Park Service has its very own police force, consisting of hundreds of officer patrolling national parks and keeping the public safe. Also, they've lost track of more than a thousand deadly weapons. You can't have it all, okay?
A new report from the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior that was obtained by the Washington Post says, basically: "Hey, thanks for patrolling the parks and all, but you are just losing guns left and right, and frankly, your behavior is scaring us." Specifically, from the report: "During our reviews of USPP field office armories, however, we discovered morethan 1,400 extra weapons. These included 477 military-style automatic and semiautomatic rifles. The USPP has a force of approximately 640 sworn officers."
The U.S. Park Police has a fucking untraceable armory going, in other words. And there is also this, which we must admit to finding somewhat charming in a Seapunk kind of way:
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 inspector general must have never run into an Al Capone/ grizzly bear hybrid.
[WaPo. Photo of typical U.S. Park Police office: Marcin Wichary/ Flickr]