CAUTION: This is a Bloomberg story.

Charts and graphs at the link.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news...-is-sweeping-america

Stealing from people almost guaranteed to be armed would seem like a dumb idea to most, but not everybody got the memo. Firearm theft from licensed retailers including gun stores is becoming increasingly common, according to data released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this week.

The number of robberies of federal firearms licensees reported to the ATF have increased 227 percent since 2013 and burglaries of such gun purveyors are up 71 percent over that same period.

To make matters worse, the quantity of firearms stolen has increased as thefts become more frequent. In 2013, 3,355 firearms were taken in burglaries, compared with 7,841 in 2017, with a steady increase each year. The trend is slightly different for robberies, which tend to leave perpetrators less time to gather up guns: that number increased from 96 in 2013 to 370 in 2016, but fell to 288 last year.

Guns are rarely inexpensive items and often the target of thieves. But the government doesn’t seem to have an answer for this particular crime wave. The ATF said it’s looking into the data in order “to identify causation for the uptick in these types of crimes over the past five years,” a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

Texas gun licensees lost the most firearms in burglaries last year, 769, followed by 456 in Alabama and 427 in both Colorado and Georgia. That’s a big decrease for Georgia, which topped the states at 1,069 such stolen firearms last year.

“Criminals know that gun stores can be easy targets to obtain armfuls of firearms in a matter of minutes. Every successful break-in opens a new threat to our community and puts law enforcement officers at risk,” David Chipman, a senior policy advisor at Giffords Law Center, a gun control advocacy group, said in a statement.

Chipman, a former ATF special agent, added that “when states require gun dealers to take responsible steps to prevent their stores from being burglarized—by properly securing not only their stores, but the firearms themselves—they eliminate the risk of thieves taking off with weapons. We know how to solve this problem, but we need more states to acknowledge this issue and put best practices for reducing gun store theft into action.”

quote:

Originally posted by Bigboreshooter:
But the government doesn’t seem to have an answer for this particular crime wave. The ATF said it’s looking into the data in order “to identify causation for the uptick in these types of crimes over the past five years,”

Greater availability is one big factor.

During the "Obama gun ban craze" of 2008 through 2012ish, shelves were mostly bare of guns and ammo. No guns on shelves = fewer guns able to be stolen from gun stores.

After 2012/2013, the hysteria subsided. But the manufacturers had already greatly increased production, so the result was a flood of guns and ammo onto the marketplace, and shelves were suddenly overly full. Too many guns on shelves = more guns to steal from gun stores.

These thieves usually get probation, maybe. Why would they not steal?

We chased down a 16 year old last night with two stolen guns on him. Anyone want to take odds that he gets a single day of newly sentenced time out of it?

Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly, wouldnt ya know. The Government has another Crime Wave to fix. Man they're useful. And I wonder if Mr Chipman has any knowledge of guns being run to mexico ?

To stop this crime wave and protect the police and subjects citizens, we must close all gun stores.

I imagine eventually the gun stores will batten down the hatches and make such thefts more trouble than they're worth.

quote:

by properly securing not only their stores, but the firearms themselves—they eliminate the risk of thieves taking off with weapons

we can't eliminate the common cold, littering, drunk driving, the fbi, malicious prosecutions, heroin or even worse diet coke, computer fraud, election fraud, credit card fraud, identity theft, street crime or children telling fibs

But! with a single stroke the cabbage patch doll can eliminate gun theft. All it takes is common sense solutions.

Well, Fast and Furious got outed, so BATF had to start another program called Snatch and Grab....

At all the gun stores I visit (here in Texas) all the staff are carrying! And there have been robbers shot and killed.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
These thieves usually get probation, maybe. Why would they not steal?

We chased down a 16 year old last night with two stolen guns on him. Anyone want to take odds that he gets a single day of newly sentenced time out of it?

Right there is the problem. I know a guy that ran a gun shop 10 years ago that had 130+ pistols stolen. They caught the 5 who did it. Three of them were under 18 got less than 4 months and probation. The other two got 1 year and 3 years. With good behavior they got out in half that time. So 4 out of 5 did under one year in jail! I'm betting thieves know they will get little time if any.

It is a property crime. The law doesn't really care.

quote:

a senior policy advisor at Giffords Law Center

Maybe the figures quoted are factually correct, I don't know, but coming from Miss Claridge, this automatically makes me suspicious.

Here in Colorado the thefts are illegal immigrant gangs arming up. This is how they acquire their firearms.

Make it a federal crime. Mandatory 20 year sentence. And, of course the feds don't have parole.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
Make it a federal crime. Mandatory 20 year sentence. And, of course the feds don't have parole.

had a law here that made it a Fed crime

project Exile, get caught with a gun while doing another crime (usually drug related) and skip the state stuff, get a ride to fed time,

not sure whatever happened to it, of if they still do it,


got called up for Fed Jury duty once, and was in the mix for jury selection,
project exile case, young guy caught with a handgun and drugs,

seems my demographics did not meet the needs of the defense, so I did not get selected

^
I just looked that up. It wasn't a law per se, but a prosecutorial project back in the late '90's based on existing laws (GCA of '68.) It started in Richmond, and was copied elsewhere.

Enthusiasm for it sees to have waned.

I would at least consider a new explicit federal law that make it a federal crime to burglarize a federally licensed firearms dealer, or a shipment to or from such a dealer. As I said above, and conviction would carry a twenty year mandatory sentence.

We've had several smash and grabs here in Littleton in the last two years. Just a week ago six people raided a place at 4am south of me about 5-10 miles. I read another smash and grab from Aug 2017 at a pawn shop was stopped but they won't even give pursuit in the middle of the morning. The cops now have a no high-speed pursuit limit in force from the City and even at 2-3am in the morning we don't chase gun thieves..W T F !!!!

To solve this issue, progressive Washington State wants to make it a class C felony for the OWNER, if their gun(s) get stolen.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikus36:
To solve this issue, progressive Washington State wants to make it a class C felony for the OWNER, if their gun(s) get stolen.

Well, that makes perfect sense. Get your gun stolen once, lose your gun rights. Next thing you know, they'll have thieves on staff. Whatever they need to do to destroy law abiding gun owners' rights...

quote:

Originally posted by Mikus36:
To solve this issue, progressive Washington State wants to make it a class C felony for the OWNER, if their gun(s) get stolen.

Now if we could get the same thing for stolen cars, we would solve that problem too.