Homeland Security lost Guns

[n4zov]

I knew this story rang a bell, and I finally found it! This is an ongoing problem with Federal law enforcement. This appeared in 2002:

"Year-old claims of missing guns and computers at the FBI, INS and three other federal law enforcement agencies were confirmed, as a Justice Department inspector general reported the agencies were missing more than 775 weapons and 400 laptop computers.

The items were reported to have been stolen, lost or gone missing mainly from the FBI over a two-year period, according to the report,....."

Missing Guns and Laptops Reported by Federal Agencies

 

[sigp220.45]

DHS, which includes Border Patrol, ICE, and several other agencies, had 178 guns lost or stolen out of 188,500 issued during FY 2006, 2007, and 2008. That is one tenth of one percent over three years. Not bad.

I know its fun to bash DHS for some reason, but I'd bet this rate is lower than many police departments and branches of the military.

I lost my Model 36 out of a snapped ankle holster when I got dragged by a car during an arrest. I didn't notice it until I was leaving lockup. I rocketed back and was told by a nice lady that she had found it in her yard and turned it in to the police. I got it back without any paper trail, complete with a deputy's initials scratched into the trigger guard. If I hadn't gotten it back I would have faced several days without pay and a permanent blot on my record.

Lost guns are taken seriously and the penalties are severe. As long as the government insists on hiring humans instead of robots this will continue to happen.

As noted even people who are highly revered here make mistakes. Bill Jordan killed a friend of his. Elmer Keith lost a gun. Jeff Cooper wrote about touching a round off in his den and out the window. I'll bet plenty of folks here have done stupid things as well.

 

[handejector]

sigp220.45-
THANKS!
I kept waiting for someone with a truly logical approach to explain the math.

I had a humorous, slightly sarcastic post in mind for a couple of days now that I won't do.

Thanks again.

 

[lonejacklarry]

I'll bet plenty of folks here have done stupid things as well.

You're right and I do not suggest the start of a new thread w/ that title either!

Many years ago (probably 1976) when I was a field sergeant for a large mid-western city police department, I responded w/ other officers to a tavern disturbance call. As I walked by one parked patrol car, I noticed that the shotgun was in the rack but the rack was not locked nor was the car. I secured the shotgun in my own car trunk and went inside the bar to observe the officers. After the call, I went on my way and listened as the other two officers got back in service.

I "trailed" my errant officer for over two hours as I did not want the occasion to arise where he would need the shotgun and not have it. After the two hours, he called me on the radio and asked if I would meet him at the station. When I responded, he looked like he was going to cry as he told me the story of how he had left the rack and car unlocked and his Remington 870 (and 4 rounds of 00 buck) were missing.

I retrieved his shotgun from my car trunk, handed it to him along w/ the loose shells, and drove off. Other officers told me later that he wanted to meet me at the station as he was going to resign to avoid me having to do all the paperwork.

That officer was promoted to sergeant in 1980, captain in 1988, and major in 1999. I retired in 1996 and this officer retired in 2003 and I was invited to his retirement party.

I'll give you one guess the subject of his first comment in his little "see ya" speech!

Everyone makes mistakes and some of these have consequences, some of which cannot ever be fixed. Sure, it was serious and I could easily have made the case for termination. As it turned out, he was a valuable asset to the PD for nearly 30 years. I'm sure he had the same attitude when he was a field sergeant, too.

My dad used to say that "that's why they put erasers on pencils."

 

[MKT]

Charlie, Bobcat and SigP220 are all on the mark. No one has mentioned though that some of these guns were stolen from murdered agents. Other guns went "missing" when the GOV vehicle was stolen, yep even G-rides get stolen. One of the agents who works for me had his plain car stolen - he is one of the guys on what would be our SWAT team, the car was locked and his sniper rifle secured in a lock box bolted in the trunk. Car was found, box compramised.

Heck, I even lost a gun in a foot pursuit once. Back before Level 2 or 3 retention holsters were the norm. I was using a plain old high ride duty holster and during one particularly difficult foot chase somehow my gun went flying out of the holster. I found it, but it wasn't easy.

Yes, most of the lost/missing guns are due to stupid moves. A bunch are also clerical errors such as when a case of guns gets shipped back to the armory for destruction or repair and the paperwork gets lost. The guns get taken care of but there is no record and they are now missing, when in reality they've been destroyed.

 

[Cyrano]

Please tell this pilgrim the story of how Elmer lost his gun in the bathroom. Did he flush it down the toilet? I almost lost a very expensive camera lens (Leitz 200mm Telyt)carried in a coat pocket down into the multi-hundred-gallon holding tank of a latrine: the lens hit the rim and bounced onto the floor instead of down the hole. My little heart went pit-a-pat for quite a while.

 

[Dano357]

I would have cuffed him upside his head!!