PHOENIX — In the past two weeks Phoenix police, working with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, confiscated more than 700 guns and made 525 arrests as part of a targeted crackdown.
Roughly during the same period, the county attorney received 16 submittals of homicide cases.
Fifteen of those cases were victims of gun violence.
"It became time to start holding people accountable. Letting people know if they use a gun to commit a crime or a felon in possession of a gun, they are going to go to prison," Interim County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said.
Mitchell announced Friday her office will require a prison sentence in any plea offer if a firearm is used in the commission of the crime.
"There is a small number of people who commit a large number of crimes," Mitchell said, "so, as we start removing those people off the street, we are going to see a reduction in that."
Some are not so sure.
Jacob Martinez of Arizonans for Gun Safety considers the county attorney's action political theater saying, "This isn't going to deter anyone. What's actually going to deter people and stop people is making sure we have processes in place so people can't get their hands on firearms."
The gun violence that law enforcement is encountering is compounded by threats at schools.
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Since August 25th there have been at least eight instances across Arizona, including six in Maricopa County, where guns have either been confiscated from students or schools have received threats of guns on campus.
"We got lucky with these situations, we got lucky that nothing happened," Martinez said.
Unless there is criminal negligence, there is very little a county attorney can do to prosecute cases involving young children in possession of guns.
Arizona does not require gun owners to take gun safety classes.
