Pittsburgh police, ATF find many guns seized from juveniles were stolen

Half of the guns seized in cases involving kids and firearms in Pittsburgh last year were stolen, according to new data provided Friday by a joint task force between police and federal agents meant to figure out how children are getting guns.

The deep dive began, said Pittsburgh police Chief Scott Schubert, “and it was born out of a desire to answer the question that is asked time and time again … and that’s how are these guns getting into the hands of these juveniles, our children?”

The goal of the task force, a joint venture between city police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and, was to determine where the guns came from.

Matthew Varisco, special agent in charge of the ATF’s Philadelphia field office, declined to say how many guns they seized from juveniles in 2021 but said the guns were seized over the course of 50 cases.

The data collected, Varisco said, shows that just under half of the guns had been reported stolen. Of those that were stolen, about a third were stolen from a car, most of which were left unsecured.

“This is something that can easily be corrected by simply making sure one’s firearm is safely and properly secured and accounted for,” Varisco said.

The examination, though started more than a year ago, took on a renewed urgency after a shooting early April 17 at a party left two boys dead and nine other people injured. Police have said around 200 people were at the party, which was held in an Airbnb rental unit on the North Side. Many of those in attendance, police said, were underage.

According to information from the task force, around 13% of the guns seized from kids in 2021 were illegally purchased, and ATF officials acknowledged that straw purchases “remain a major problem in communities throughout the commonwealth and across the nation.”

Schubert said it is up to those in the community to speak up.

“People need to step forward. People need to let us know if somebody has a gun, because a lot of people do,” Schubert said. “A lot of people know people that are carrying, whether it’s friends, whether it’s classmates, whether it’s family members. We’ve got to get those gun out of their hands because it’s eventually going to turn into somebody getting shot and killed.”

A majority are stolen. Of those that were stolen from a vehicle, a majority were unsecured — that is, laying in plain sight. “That’s an attractive target,” said US Attorney Cindy Chung. pic.twitter.com/wjlVIQfyUM

— Megan Guza (@meganguzaTrib) April 22, 2022

Related:

• Police: Handguns, AR-15-style weapon used in Pittsburgh Airbnb shooting
• Pittsburgh chief: Officer who responded to noise complaint at Airbnb party saw 'nothing unusual'
• Details from Pittsburgh Airbnb shooting