"Some people simply have no businesses possessing guns." It's something Peter Deegan, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, says he's said time and time again. On Tuesday, at a press conference surrounded by fellow prosecutors and local law enforcement, he once again emphasized the importance of arresting people who unlawfully own firearms before a tragedy occurs. "Everybody here would much rather bring a federal possession of a firearms case before that firearms goes off," Mr. Deegan said. "And hopefully avoid the kind of tragedy that happened up in Coggon and took the life of a young man." Just a day before, federal prosecutors sentenced five young men in a 2017 drug deal gone wrong, that resulted in the shooting death of 20-year-old Dylan Plotz. He says federal crimes were already taking place before Mr. Plotz died. "Those crimes are actually committed before the two groups even confronted each other. Just possessing a gun under those circumstances while you're getting ready to commit a robbery, or while you're getting ready to engage in a drug deal, those are federal offenses," Mr. Deegan said, adding that since March, 58 Iowans have been charged with federal firearm crimes - everything from possessing a firearm as a drug user to obscuring the serial number of a gun. The arrests are a part of the national "Project Safe Neighborhoods" initiative to reduce gun violence.