“Since 2010, at least 944 guns have disappeared from police in the Bay Area and state and federal agents across California,” extras.mercurynews.com reports, “an average of one almost every other day — and fewer than 20 percent have been recovered.” Here’s the tally:
As the report rightly points out, the losses are the result of a dysfunctional police culture. One Golden State politician – a Democrat no less — wants to change that through legislation.
“This needs to stop,” said state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, who is sponsoring legislation that would make it illegal in California for a cop to leave a gun in an unattended car unless it is locked inside a hidden compartment or secure case.
I highly doubt his bill will see the light of day. And unless it makes cops personally, legally accountable for a lost or stolen firearm, as non law-enforcement officers are, it won’t do squat to alter the situation.
So what happens to these lost or stolen firearms? What do you think?
Stolen police guns have ended up in the hands of members and associates of notorious gangs like the Bloods, The Aryan Brotherhood and Norteños. One fell into the hands of a Reno pimp after a prostitute took a Kensington police officer’s Glock pistol and badge from his hotel room when he fell asleep. That gun was recovered when the pimp accidentally shot himself in the leg during an altercation.
The report chronicles high-profile murders where bad guys made use of former police firearms. And yet gun control advocates consider the police the “only ones” responsible enough to carry a firearm. Go figure.