gun store
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
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South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has introduced a bill that would increase penalties for thefts from FFL holders. Yes, stealing gats from the local gun store has always been illegal, but Sen. Graham’s bill would make it even illegal-er. And if that means keeping a thief in jail longer if convicted, so much the better.

The NSSF’s press release lauding Graham’s bill lists 12 co-sponsors. Notice anything missing from the list of legislators who have gotten behind this effort?

WASHINGTON — The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®) today is commending U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) introduction of S. 1788, the Federal Firearms Licensee Protection Act of 2019, which will strengthen the criminal penalties for thefts of firearms from federally licensed retailers.

“Thefts from federally licensed firearms retailers represent particularly brazen offenses that hold potential for additional crime when stolen guns are sold on the street,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “The Federal Firearms Licensee Protection Act is a significant reinforcement of our federal laws to help deter both first-time and repeat violators and to ensure those convicted of these crimes serve serious time. We thank Senator Graham for his leadership to deliver real solutions to make our communities safer across America.”

FFL protection act s.1788
Sen. Lindsey Graham (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, file)

Sen. Graham’s proposed legislation would strengthen criminal penalties for theft of firearms from FFLs to help prevent criminals from becoming repeat offenders. It sends a strong message to criminals engaged in this nefarious activity that law enforcement partners and the firearms industry consider these crimes as a significant threat to community safety and will use all tools of prevention and law enforcement to protect the American public.

The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), James Risch (R-Idaho), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and David Perdue (R-Ga.). Similar legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 2179, with the same name.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reported a 71 percent increase in the number of thefts from FFLs from 2013 through 2017, which peaked at 577 such crimes. In 2018, that number fell to 427, a 26 percent drop but still well above the 338 in 2013. About 6,000 firearms were stolen from FFLs in burglaries and robberies in 2018.

The firearms industry through NSSF is an active partner in helping to reduce thefts and aiding ATF in identifying those involved in these crimes. As part of Operation Secure Store®, NSSF helps educate FFLs on steps they can take to reduce instances of theft. NSSF, in cooperation with ATF, also conducts retailer store security seminars, assists retailers with store security audits, and encourages the use of methods and technologies to reduce the likelihood firearms will be stolen. NSSF also continues to match ATF reward offers for information that leads to the arrest of criminals responsible for thefts from FFLs.

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46 COMMENTS

  1. OUTSTANDING. A young man worked for me for many years {starting at 15 years old), then decided he wanted my firearms more than me. He stole 22 assorted items (I have an FFL). He will soon be getting out of prison and returning to this area. I had no part in his conviction (plea bargain) and have never had the opportunity to face him. He has NEVER shown any remorse. I personally think he should not go free until he makes arrangements for amends.

      • Disagree. He was charged, convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment. He is or had completed that sentence as prescribed by the law. Do I feel he owes you absolutely in terms of apologizing but his Dept to society will be paid in full when his sentence is complete.

    • I too believe in civil compensation for criminal acts .
      If I had a magic pen , I would build prison factories and prison farms , that produced shoes , clothing , soaps , shampoos , towels , sheets , pillows , food etc. , everything that a prison needs , within reason , to feed and shelter prisoners and make prisoners work off their time .
      I would also pay the prisoner a standard minimum wage and set up a savings account for them , so when they are released they can either have a sum of money put back to start over with and to re-compensate the victim of their crimes .
      The compensation would be determined by the judge at the time of sentencing .
      If a person was able to actually earn money while incarcerated they would be less likely to re-crime after release and more likely to follow the rules while in .
      As far as making it a greater crime , with longer incarceration times , for stealing a weapon , I’m all for it .

      • You do understand the prison industrial complex, right? Most inmates in prison do work. For pennies an hour for the private prisons making things (furniture, clothes, etc.). The private prisons push harsher prison sentences so they have more slave labor. They also invent infractions the inmates commit to keep them incarcerated longer. And tax payers pay private prisons on top of that. So dual income streams for the companies.

        I agree with work while in prison. It should be for the state though, not a private company.

    • Just in case no one has told you, you are either a Troll or else the type of gun owner that we don’t need. Go away from this page before I find you with your ISP and DNS numbers I just got from your stupid post.

  2. Meanwhile, SC still does not issue non-resident permits, or god forbid give law abiding citizens the same constitutional carry rights as criminals.

    Graham will run for Prez (again) and may in deed be the first gay President. I think one of his wives might not know hes gay, but she is the only one.

  3. …In speaking about “Rogue Gobermint, and Authoritarianism”. Mr. Lindsay “RED FLAG ” Graham obviously is some how relevant and in the news again…Has anyone recalled this RINO yet…Before he does more damage to our Constitutional-Bill of Rights….Before this RINO has the Bill of Rights amended to include the right of the people to be “Red Flagged” by local/city/state/fed tyrants giving our civil rights the reach-around!

    • Exactly ! I’m glad the manufactures division,NSSF, of Negotiating Rights Away commends the worthless RINO from South Carolina because I have nothing but scorn for the POS.
      P.S/ this bill will never be signed in the first place,he has nothing to loose.

      • I agree he’s a rino and part of the swamp that has to be removed. Keep in mind he was John McCain’s student. When our president was first elected he was against the president. He has came out in support of alot of the president’s policies but deep down he’s still a globalists.

    • They’ve become a JOKE. The Hughes Amendment has never been repealed because “Gun Collectors’ Associations” being run by fat, FUDD, F***-Ups wouldn’t want their $25,000 Retirement Investments being devalued. NSSF is in quite the cahoots with “Gun Collectors”.

      • Those greedy NFA guys exist, but are *very* few in number (sadly they are also often *very* well-heeled). Most people with MGs or other NFA items (especially those who paid for them), actually like using them, and recognize that without NFA barriers; 1) there would be tremendously less legal liability for possessing them, 2) they could afford even more cool toys & ammunition to feed them, 3) all the cool guns they simply cannot access without an SOT because of Hughes would become accessible, 4) the far-more-likely prospect of a sales or transfer ban turning their collection worthless overnight is now gone, 5) “pre-ban” guns from the pre-Hughes era will still mostly command a premium because of rarity, apart from the really low quality crap like Lightning Links, Stemples, and dime-a-dozen small items like HK sears (which are only even as valuable as they are because of convenient ATF rulings)

    • Uh, NSSFudd have *always* been this way. If anything, the NRA was infectulated by them. They’re an industry group; if they think banning semi-autos will open a huge business for bolt actions, they’re all in. If they think banning one type of gun will prevent banning others, they’re all in. Total Fudd. They supported the bump stock ban, openly (as opposed to sneakily, like the NRA) as well as mandatory FFL transfers for all gun sales (UBCs) because obviously a ton of their members would make a killing on transfer fees. They’re as bad as the NRA is about carry licensing & hunter training, where they do everything they can to promote those as mandatory restrictions so their affiliates can charge for the pleasure & kick a little back to their benefactor org. They charge money for legal-compliance seminars for gun dealers/manufacturers/exporters; why the hell would they *ever* support rolling back those legal barriers, so long as business isn’t interrupted?

  4. Even if this proposed law passes, it won’t matter, the libs are letting criminals out of jail early anyway, too many scumbags doing hard time , so the libs say, I mean wake up people, Libs don’t want measure 11 crimes anymore cause the perps & their families think they got a raw deal. Same with juveniles committing serious felonys (murder, rape, torture,) things like that, now there a big push (by libs ) to let them out also. Time too put real teeth in the laws & not mollycoddle any of them… PERIOD…!!! Think about the victim once in awhile…

    • Case in point, one of the thieves in that zephyrhills smash and grab video above was killed by acute failure of the victim selection process 5 months later during an attempted carjacking, after being arrested and released for the burglary. Not keeping him behind bars has resulted in one death, one murder charge, and the worst day of one woman’s life.

      • Our society has largely forgotten that locking up & punishing criminals is actually an act of mercy for them; they are denied both the opportunity of being hurt committing a crime, as well as the permanent black mark of being convicted of yet another offense. A truly ‘pragmatic’ society (libs *love* that word when it suits them) would simply execute these people…and our own society used to back before we could afford to deal with criminals mercifully.

        If we have truly decided to abandon the ideal of prison time being a ‘curative’ measure (which I happen to believe has always been BS, but which has been a distinctly American vision since right around the time of our founding), then the only alternative is the less-kind one, if we are to continue having a system of laws. Otherwise we will continue to languish in the moronic state of increasing lawlessness we are currently experiencing, where certain types of career criminals cycle through a revolving door without punishment & run rampant, others are immediately imprisoned for their entire lives, still others are kept completely immune from consequences altogether, and lastly those of us who obey the laws do so solely out of personal morality or bodily fear, and not a respect for the society we are a part of. It cannot persist.

  5. Funny how all of a sudden, with Democrats in Control of The House of Representatives, and this Bill standing a chance of going nowhere fast, Republicans become “pro-gun”, again.

    6 things should’ve happened by the summer of 2017 to advance The 2nd Amendment Gun Rights Agenda.

    1) Hearing Protection Act

    2) Further strengthening the PLCAA

    3) Repealing Any Other Weapons (AOW’s), Short Barreled Rifles (SBR’s), and Short Barreled Shotguns (SBS’s) from the 1934 NFA

    4) Removing Marijuana Use from the 1968 GCA as a permanent lifetime disqualifier from Gun Ownership (same as Domestic Violence, given that both are at minimum, Class A Misdemeanors)

    5) Repealing the ban on interstate sales of Handguns from both the 1938 Federal Firearms Act (FFA) and 1968 Gun Control Act.

    6) Make 2nd Amendment Rights Restoration recognized for non-violent felons at the Federal Level.

    Won’t happen now, due to the f***ing off of the NRA, as well as wallowing in their filthy subversive corruption with the Establishment Bush Cartel of the GOP, which has put our 2nd Amendment in Jeopardy of being lost within the next 6 years.

    • Hey, you read my mind!

      You also forgot passing “sporting purposes” reform. I forget the bill, but there was a proposal to change “sporting purposes” in all our federal gun laws (NFA, GCA, 922r, as well as executive import bans) to “lawful purposes,” which would both moot most ‘feature’ based federal gun laws as well as remove determination discretion from the US AG for good (that’s right, Trump could have done all this himself on Day One with a phone & pen through his AG perfectly legally, and in fact much easier than banning bump stocks).

  6. Attach the HPA and you have a deal. Every proposed gun law of any kind from now on needs to be a net gain for our side, period.

    • You’ll want to elect someone different than Lindsey Graham, then.

      The real way the NRA has let down gun owners, is that it has utterly failed to educate the easily-disinterested and misled majority of apolitical members/gun owners about who actually is or is not pro-gun. They used to do a good job of this with their rating system back when Knox was in, and holding AWB-Dems’ & and Republicans’ feet to the fire, but subsequently the org became an advocate for everyone with an (R) next to their name, regardless the existence or lack of a pro-gun record (or anti-gun for that matter)

      • Oh I agree 100%. It makes no sense how ‘A-rated’ politicians are running around only too willing to compromise away our rights. The ratings are next to useless these days, just like the NRA.

  7. If this bill passes both Houses of Congress, it won’t matter even a little. The Feds won’t prosecute and the local prosecutors will cut the bad guys free the way they usually do.

  8. I don’t have the stats but I bet that legit robberies\burglaries of FFLs are far outweighed by guns stolen from regular owners and, crucially, from cars.

    If I were an enterprising gun thief I would try my luck with cars parked near federal “no gun zone” buildings

  9. You know, I’m a big advocate of freedom, restructuring the penal system, and felons have rights. However steeling a firegunm should carry the death penalty. That’s not as absurd as it sounds, I used to be an outlaw and I never met a stolen gunm that’s wasn’t up to no good. You don’t steal an M16 or HiPoint to fill your deer tag,, murder rape and robbery

      • This I agree with. The only way we can slow crime down is to punish the criminal, and the death penalty if need be. Of all the shooting, all we hear is more gun control, never any thing of what they will do to the shooter. So far, all we have seen is the innocent gun owner being accused, and more of our rights being taken away all the time. California has almost beat New York on crime rating, but the people are close to losing all their gun rights and crime goes up as the people”s right go down. The only way to get crime down is to hang the criminal as soon as they get convicted and the other criminals will see that and have second thoughts.But as long as the criminal has more rights than the victim, there will not be any reduction in crime.

  10. Anyone notice that we are seeing both more pro gun legislation proposed, and passed (even if it is just stuff around the margins), now that Republicans don’t hold the House? I guess they think they need gun owners’ votes all of a sudden, ahead of 2020.

  11. I think the following “gun crimes” should have enhanced sentences; Stealing from FFL holders, lying about felony background, felon in possession, strawman purchase, stealing a gun in general, and use of a firearm by a felon. There should be NO plea bargaining, must serve at least 3/4 of the sentence before there is ANY consideration of parole, no pardons, and for the second conviction of anything on the list the sentence for that violation will double. These kinds of people are screwing with our rights and deserve to be out of the way and know beforehand that the crime isn’t worth the time.

  12. BS

    Stealing is Stealing!

    Stealing from a poor single mom or dad should be a greater penalty not a rich gun chain with 200% Insurance!

  13. So long as Lindsey Graham continues to push Red Flag gun confiscation — or any national effort to fund state level red flag bills — he’s a traitor and deserves no political cover. Articles like this only undermine the Second Amendment by rewarding a fake Republican over a bill that effectively changes nothing. Just goes to show how out of touch NSSF is with ordinary gun owners and with Graham’s bad record on gun rights:

    1 – Graham’s SuperPAC took $250,000 from Michael Bloomberg to fend off primary challengers in 2014.
    2 – Graham voted for cloture on Toomey-Manchin (universal background checks) in 2013.
    3 – Graham voted for and co-sponsored FIX-NICS last year.
    4 – Graham voted for multiple versions of the secret “terror watch list” gun ban in 2016-17.
    5 – Graham voted to confirm anti-gun SCOTUS Justices Elena Kagan (2010) and Sonia Sotomayor (2010).
    6 – Graham voted to for cloture on Obama’s ATF director B. Todd Jones (2013).
    7 – Graham voted to confirm of Obama’s anti-gun Attorney Generals Eric Holder (2009) and Loretta Lynch (2015).
    8 – Oh and yeah, Graham also voted to make Hillary Clinton (2009) and John Kerry (2013) Secretary of State — both of whom backed the UN’s gun treaty.

    About three months ago Lindsey Graham sat next to Dianne Feinstein as he chaired the Judiciary committee’s gun control hearing declaring “every right has it’s limits” while he pushed his proposal for the federal government fund state level red flag gun confiscation bills. He’s sponsoring the idea with Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal (S.2521 in the 115th Congress.)

    Lindsey Graham is NOT our friend.

  14. How about we make it REALLY bad to steal any firearm from anyone and make it REALLYSUPERBAD to hurt someone with one…

    Oh, wait…

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