A massive illegal firearm crackdown is underway as South Florida sees a rise in gun violence.
Federal investigators are doing this by focusing on those who should never have firearms in the first place as a renewed effort to stop people from buying guns for those who cannot.
“I think that nobody should be buying guns for anybody else,” said gun owner Waldo Toyos. “You buy your own gun, and it’s your gun.”
Waldo Toyos is a gun owner, but doesn’t think everyone should own a gun, especially those who legally cannot.
“Miami and South Florida and all the way up until the Orlando area,” said ATF Deputy Director Rob Cedaka. “There is a lot of firearms trafficking, and it ends here and ends up in the Caribbean. It also ends up in Mexico as well.”
Federal and local officials teamed up on Friday to increase awareness of their “Don’t Lie for the Other Guys” campaign.
“When these firearms are out there in our community and in the wrong hands, we see the results: we see the shootings, we see the robberies, we see the crimes that are occurring,” said Miami-Dade Asst. Sheriff Erick Garcia.
According to ATF, more than 40 illegal firearms were confiscated in Margate more than five years ago as part of a long-standing investigation.
“We’ve seen traffickers spread themselves all around the country trying to develop targets, people that they think are easy victims to go out and willing to use their clean, criminal history, or lack of criminal history to be able to buy a firearm,” said Cekada.
The owner of Top Gun in Southwest Miami-Dade sees the importance of this initiative in keeping the community safe.
“It’s important to get the information out to customers and to prevent crimes from happening,” said Steve Schack, Top Gun’s owner.
“If you’re going out and committing a crime, whether you’re purchasing a gun or doing anything that here in [Miami-Dade County], we’re gonna go out, we’re gonna look for you and we’re gonna make an arrest,” said Garcia.
