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Record Number Of Guns Recovered In 2020, Cincinnati Police Report

Cincinnati saw a reduction in most crimes throughout 2020 as many people hunkered down in their homes because of the pandemic. But among the most violent — homicides and shooting — numbers were up after declines for the past few years. Chief Eliot Isaac says that's likely linked to the increased number of gun sales throughout the country last year.

"In the past year, we have recovered a record number of firearms, more than we've recorded any year before. But the one caveat to that, that in 2020 the United States produced more firearms, more handguns than any other year on record," he said during a virtual town hall Wednesday with the Cincinnati Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Isaac said he thinks people imagine someone selling guns out of the trunk of their car, but that rarely happens. Most of the recovered guns were legally purchased on behalf of someone else or stolen out of homes or vehicles.

He said for people to have conversations about reducing violence while simultaneously living in communities where guns are being manufactured and sold at record numbers is counterproductive.

Isaac is a veteran and has been with CPD for more than three decades. "I am not anti-gun," he said. "I'm anti-illegal gun. I'm anti guns coming into our communities illegally. But we have to as a nation take a serious look at what we are doing."

Cincinnati felt the brunt reality of gun violence in 2020 with 84 of 94 homicides caused by shootings.

Jolene Almendarez is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants who came to San Antonio in the 1960s. She was raised in a military family and has always called the city home. She studied journalism at San Antonio College and earned a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Public Communications from the University of Alaska Anchorage. She's been a reporter in San Antonio and Castroville, Texas, and in Syracuse and Ithaca, New York.