DC leaders call for gun control

WASHINGTON - As the sit-in on the chamber's floor took place on Capitol Hill, just a few blocks away at D.C. police headquarters, D.C.'s mayor and police chief came together to support those fighting for gun legislation.

Chief of Police Cathy Lanier began her remarks by talking about the true threat of assault weapons. Even in a city where they are illegal to purchase. Lanier says three AK-47's were taken off D.C. streets in the last week.

She then began to tell reporters about a chilling crime that may have been prevented by D.C.'s gun unit within the last week. Had the investigation not been carried out, the crime could have ended a lot worse than it did.

"Just last week our officers in the gun recovery unit got information at about 1:00am that a 17-year-old boy had made a threat to a 17-year-old girlfriend that he was going to kill her and her entire family and then shoot up her school," Lanier said. "The gun recovery unit worked with that young woman through the night - found an on call emergency judge and interrupted his day - got an emergency search warrant and was able to go an recover an AK-47 from the individual involved and 180 rounds of ammunition - If anybody for one second doesn't think the actions of the gun recovery unit didn't save countless lives you're making a mistake."

When FOX 5 asked what school the teen was targeting, the chief did not want to answer that question because the investigation is still underway, but she said there was no longer a threat.

The press conference was held on Thursday to back up those congressional members who were staging a sit-in for assault weapon legislation. As most know, you can't buy guns in D.C., but the chief said that sometimes those guns are being bought outside of the D.C. area and then brought back in.

Chief Cathy L. Lanier said she believes that taking these guns off the street federally will help reduce homicide rate here in D.C. locally. She also believes it will make her officers safer. Lanier said she hates the thought of her cops having to go out into the area and face assault weapons over and over again.