‘Probe will hopefully get to bottom of missing DFW firearms’
Gov. Arnold I. Palacios hopes that the investigation at the Division of Fish and Wildlife will shed light as to who is responsible for the nine missing firearms issued to DFW.
“It should not happen,” said Palacios during a press briefing. Monday.
As far as he is concerned, there should only one individual who should have the key to a gun safe, he said..
“When I was there, I was really leery that people would check in and out and I was looking at the SOP (Standard Operating Procedures). They didn’t really have an SOP for it,” the governor said.
He said he reached out to the Department of Public Safety because he personally believes that DFW should put the safe in the DPS armory.
Palacios underscored the need to have a more robust SOP about guns.
“We can’t continue to operate that way and not be accountable for those weapons and firearms,” he said.
The governor said he always has reservation about firearms.
He said when he served at DLNR, they never had firearms.
Palacios said it was much later when a petition came up to change the law that allows conservation officers to carry guns.
DLNR discovered last May 4 that eight DFW rifles and one handgun were unaccounted for and were deemed missing after the Office of the Public Auditor notified various government agencies that it wants a survey of all government-issued firearms in the CNMI.
DFW
