DES MOINES, Iowa — The number of guns seized by the Des Moines Police Department has gone down, according to the department’s 2024 report. 

In 2024, DMPD seized 598 guns, that’s 33 less than 2023 with 631. In 2022, there were 737 guns seized. Over the last three years, it has gone down 19%.

So is seizing fewer guns a good or bad thing? Does that mean there’s less guns to seize or less people and resources to seize them?

“There’s a lot of different things that impact that number,” Sgt. Paul Parizek, Public Information Officer of the Des Moines Police Department, said. “One of them that really stands out is that in years past, we’ve had a unit that’s basically dedicated to that proactive intervention, going out, seeking out people that we know have guns. Right now, we don’t have that unit, so we kind of rely on that proactive piece with our patrol officers. They have to prioritize calls for service so there’s less time to go out there and do that, searching for those folks.”

He says another reason is that DMPD has cracked some big cases these last few years. 

“When we go out and we specifically target people who are known violent gun offenders, known drug offenders, and we bring in the federal resources to prosecute them, we get them off the streets and we keep them off the streets for a while. And that definitely impacts that because we know that many of these offenders are repeat offenders,” Sgt. Parizek said.

In 2021, the city was awarded a grant to work with the nonprofit Creative Visions to combat gun violence in local neighborhoods. They poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into this and it was announced this spring that it will now lose that funding in November. That was potentially a factor.

“If you see a decrease in those numbers, it could be a good thing. It could mean that our prevention strategies are working well. It’s not just the police that are involved in that,” he said. “We’re just one piece of the response to gun problems. We can’t be everywhere all the time. And that’s where organizations like Creative Visions or the schools or other trusted adults can get in there, have conversations with kids, talk to them about the dangers and the risk and the consequences and what happens when they make poor choices. That can impact that number as well.”

Something else to at least think about: In 2021, Iowa passed a law where you don’t need to have a permit to carry a handgun. They saw more people carrying, but Sgt. Parizek made it clear they’re not trying to seize guns from law-abiding citizens, only those who break the law.

Meanwhile, we’re almost to quarter four of 2025, what has the unofficial data said about this year? 

“Those numbers change a lot. There’s sometimes factors that we just can’t really put our finger on. You look at the first six months of this year and the number of guns we seized this year, January to June compared to January to June last year has already gone up 10%. So we may see a rise.”