Students can give tips on firearms

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2001 | 10:58 a.m.

Three law enforcement agencies are combining their efforts to offer students in Clark County a way to report guns in their schools without fear of reprisal.

Metro Police, school district police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have started a tip line that allows students to report guns while remaining anonymous.

The tip line, 385-GUNS (4867), will be answered by Metro Police daily between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. and an answering machine will be available for messages after business hours, police said.

Lt. Robert DuVall of the Metro firearms section said the goal of the tip line is to give students an option that allows them to safely report guns.

"This is a pro-active project to remove as many guns as possible from the schools before they are used to hurt someone, but to make it work, we need cooperation from the students," DuVall said.

Last year school police recovered 15 guns, 40 pellet guns and two paint ball guns from school campuses.

Public service posters with information about the tip line will be placed in every high school and middle school in Clark County, DuVall said.

The tip line also can be called by residents who believe illegal firearms are in their neighborhoods.

Metro Police and the ATF already work jointly in firearms task force that investigates illegal firearms, said Dan Heenan, ATF agent acting in charge of the Las Vegas bureau.

"It gives us the chance to combine resources and allows information to be shared," Heenan said.