HAMILTON COUNTY — The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office has had its hands full this week as two separate traffic stops in two days involving teens with machine guns led to arrests.
The department said the first incident came just after midnight Wednesday morning. They pulled over five teenagers on Keystone Parkway due to a traffic infraction, and seized drugs, four guns — one modified to be a fully automatic — and a 50-round drum.
On Thursday morning on I-69 North, three more guns were seized during another traffic stop with a teenage driver. One of those guns was modified with a fully automatic switch.
"Parents need to pay attention to their kids and know what's going on," said Chief Deputy John Lowes with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office "If the kids are not monitored, if they do not have a mentor, they do not have someone guiding them, they're more likely to enter into a situation like this where they interact with the law enforcement and in these cases are going to our juvenile center or to our jail because of criminal charges."
According to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, they've already taken in 19 guns this year, compared to 67 guns seized all last year.
Investigators say these cases reveal a troubling trend.
"Currently, in our juvenile center, out of the 14 kids that are in there, eight are in there on firearms charges. Three are related to these recent instances, and then we've had some others throughout the county that they're in there for, and then we're also housing one out of county," Chief Deputy Lowes said.
The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office added that a majority of those cases involve youth coming from outside Hamilton County.
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