DENVER — In the 12 months between mid-June 2022 and mid-June of this year, Denver police officers seized 351 guns in District 6, which covers much of downtown and Capitol Hill.
The number marks a 25% increase from the same time frame in 2019 and 2020.
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said a majority of gun seizures downtown happen on weekends when bars and nightclubs in the LoDo entertainment district close.
“The vast majority of them are handguns,” Thomas said in an interview with 9NEWS Monday. “The vast majority of them are either stolen, or they're just the person who possesses them, is illegally possessing them.”
“Over the course of 30 years, it used to be rare that you'd contact an individual who was armed with a gun. Now, it's a pretty regular, frequent occurrence," he said.
The chief has been raising the alarm about guns on the streets for months, following several high-profile shootings in the city, including a shooting following the Nuggets' victory celebration.
Last month, Thomas warned that this summer could be more violent than the infamous summer of violence in 1993, simply because there are more guns on the streets.
9NEWS requested four years of data on gun seizures throughout the city. Citywide, gun seizures by police are up 34% from 2019.
“I think there's just a greater propensity for people to carry guns,” Thomas said. “I think that there's obviously a lot of opportunity for contact with individuals. I think there's a lot of individuals who feel the need, unfortunately, in our community to protect themselves. And so, more people are carrying guns, particularly in the entertainment district.”
The chief said the rise in guns on the streets, especially stolen guns, should prompt legislators to consider regulating the safe storage of firearms.
“I would like to see legislation as it relates to people being held more accountable in terms of safely securing their weapons,” he said. “I think it looks like a couple of things. Certainly we don't want to discourage people from reporting their weapons stolen. But I think if you're going to purchase a weapon from a gun store, you should probably be obligated to also purchase an implement to safely store -- a safe, a gun lock.”
Thomas said, based on conversations with other chiefs in big cities across the country, the rise of guns on city streets isn’t a Denver-centric problem. And he said the higher numbers of guns seized on downtown streets shouldn’t scare people away from visiting the city.
“I would tell people that Denver is safe, just like any other neighborhood in any neighborhood can be impacted by violent crime,” he said. “I don't think downtown is any different than those neighborhoods.”
“It's important to understand that most violence is not random, that there's usually some relational component to violence," he said. "And so, I think that people that come downtown to enjoy themselves, have dinner, see a show, do the kinds of things that they typically do in downtown Denver, I think that overwhelmingly people are able to do that safely.”
Have a tip about this or any other story? E-mail 9NEWS reporter Steve Staeger at steve@9news.com.
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