Police officers in Port St. Lucie, Florida are using gun-sniffing dogs to “get guns off the streets”. Apparently dogs can smell gunpowder residue for 2 to 3 days after it was fired and these police officers are using K-9 units to sniff out guns that have been used in an incident and thrown away.
“The dogs are capable of finding a needle in a haystack, so to speak,” Port St. Lucie Officer Will Harris told CBS12.
Over the last week, three guns believed to have been used in a crime were discovered by these gun-sniffing dogs. Areas with heavy brush make it difficult for law enforcement officers to trace these guns. With the help of the K-9s, they are able to recover the disposed of firearms. The dogs were able to trace the guns by the suspect’s scent and the smell of gun powder residue.
“If the gun has a bullet in it, even just one. Or the gun has been fired where there’s gunshot residue on the firearm, he’d be able to detect that,” Officer Harris explained.
According to officers, however, K-9s can still smell the gunpowder residue for 2 to 3 days after it was fired.
The official line is that these dogs help to prevent children from obtaining discarded firearms. And while that sounds laudable, I wonder how long before they use them on honest gun-owning citizens?
Here’s the CBS 12’s coverage:
