Reporting a stolen gun

[A-J]

Can anyone explain why it's a bad thing to report a stolen gun? I read a lot of gun stuff, here and anywhere else I can find, and one of hte things that seems to crop up a lot is resistance to doing this. Or at leasat, resistance to a law making it a legal requirement. Granted, something like this (IMO) shouldn't have to be a law, since it makes sense to me. Again, JMO - YMMV.

As a motorcycle rider, I look at it kind of like helmet laws. There should not be a law saying I HAVE to wear a helmet. I *choose* to do so, and would even if it wasn't the law. I do it because my head is not as hard as the objects it may bang against during a crash, not becuase some .gov lawmaker decided it was in my best interest. Others may choose not to, and that is their choice.

The same goes with reporting a firearm as stolen. I will do it, should the unthinkable happen, because I'd like to increase the odds that eventually it may be recovered and since I reported it, I should in theory be able to get it back. Others may choose to not report it, and therefore will probably never get it back, even if it's recovered at some point.

What say you CG forum?

[offrdmania]

I would think it would be a good idea to report it as stolen. What if a crime is committed with your gun and you dont report it as stolen? If I was a detective and you tell me that the gun was stolen but you didnt report it, I would be very suspicious as to why it took so long to do so. What are you hiding?. At least if you report it then you are in the clear if something does happen down the road with it.

[DBADRAT]

Report it. I carry all my makes and models, SN in my wallet. as well as 2 more copies elsewhere.

[Fjold]

The objections that came up to it recently was when the law was proposed to make it a criminal offense if you did not report a firearm stolen within a certain time period.

[yankee-pete]

^^^ This is correct. It is always a good idea to report a stolen gun, but a law making you a criminal if you don't is ridiculous.

[TeddyBallgame]

putting the monkey on your back to report it is the problem...for someone like me, if one gun goes missing, I would know fairly fast...I'm always in my safe and there are only 5 I need to account for

some people have a few HUNDRED, if one was to slip away, I'm sure there are people who could literally not notice for a bit of time...trying to make them criminals for something they did not know was missing is wrong...also

I think reporting is important too...imagine having a SWAT team show up at your door, busting it down, tossing a few smoke canisters inside, because the stolen firearm you never reported was just used, and tossed, in the killing of a innocent person, or, maybe even a LEO

also, I've read stories, right here on Calguns, where ownership of firearms is still screwed up in the database...some people who sold their firearms years ago, still showing up as the registered owners...filing a stolen firearms report could help it get back to its rightful owner

[CoopsDad]

The proposals also carry reporting time periods- like it must be reported within 5 days of being stolen. If it was used in a crime and you hadn't reported it stolen, boom- criminal charge for you, even if it was a gun you leave in a vacation home in Big Bear and you hadn't been there since Christmas.

[Kappy]

The proposals also carry reporting time periods- like it must be reported within 5 days of being stolen. If it was used in a crime and you hadn't reported it stolen, boom- criminal charge for you, even if it was a gun you leave in a vacation home in Big Bear and you hadn't been there since Christmas.

Seriously? Don't you have to intentionally not report it? That's absolute crap!

[sigstroker]

putting the monkey on your back to report it is the problem...for someone like me, if one gun goes missing, I would know fairly fast...I'm always in my safe and there are only 5 I need to account for

some people have a few HUNDRED, if one was to slip away, I'm sure there are people who could literally not notice for a bit of time...trying to make them criminals for something they did not know was missing is wrong...also

I think reporting is important too...imagine having a SWAT team show up at your door, busting it down, tossing a few smoke canisters inside, because the stolen firearm you never reported was just used, and tossed, in the killing of a innocent person, or, maybe even a LEO

also, I've read stories, right here on Calguns, where ownership of firearms is still screwed up in the database...some people who sold their firearms years ago, still showing up as the registered owners...filing a stolen firearms report could help it get back to its rightful owner

Yup, at my peak I had over 60 guns. Some of them I had forgotten about and only remembered when I came across them. If any of them were stolen I'd never had known it.

[retiredAFcop]

If you don't report the guns as being stolen, you can't get a copy of the police report to send to your insurance company to support your claim. If the guns are registered to you, or identified with you in any way, failure to report them stolen places you at risk for being suspected of any crime that they end up a part of. Reporting stolen guns makes sense - it is such a "no-brainer" that it shouldn't require a law - especially a law that can be twisted to punish your for simply having your property stolen.


There are several problems with requiring stolen guns to be reported.

#1 Time
If you are legally required to report a stolen gun within 72 hours, 120 hours, or even five business days, and your house is burglarized on the second day of your two week vacation cruise, you are screwed.

#2 Not all thefts are the same
My home was broken into and burglarized a few years ago, the back door was forced, several obvious electronics items were taken from the living room, and two guns were stolen from my bedroom ( handgun kept under the bed, shotgun in closet -both were secured in cases against accidental use, but I kept these two as my "ready" home defense guns, so they weren't in the safe). Luckily, the thieves didn't find and break into my safe, which was in another room, and in an out of the way place.
This was an easy theft to detect and report.

It would be much harder to report a theft that was stealthier. Since I now have multiple safes, I sometimes don't go into one of them for weeks (or even months) at a time (I keep my lower valued C&R rifles in it). If my roommate had some friends over, and one of them managed to get into the safe and take one of them, I might not miss it for weeks (just think of what could happen if your teenager throws a party while you are not around). The same would apply if my landlord - who has keys to the house, and is legally allowed to enter it for certain reasons - allowed someone to use the keys to get into the house, and they managed to get into a safe and take something.

These thefts are like shoplifting from a home, and aren't always immediately obvious.

#3 What if you mistakenly report a gun stolen, when it isn't?
What if we go on a desert shooting trip, where we stay the night in a motel before driving home, and you accidentally leave one of your gun cases in my trunk. Neither of us realizes that it's there, since I already have three others that look just like it, and you unpack your stuff and find it missing. You remember leaving all your luggage and gun cases in your motel room when we went to dinner, and worry that it was stolen from there.
Do you want to have time to call me and the three other people that were on the trip, and allow us to check and make sure none of us has it, before you report that it was stolen from the motel room? If you are under duress to report it within a certain time-frame, you might not have the time to check with everyone.

#4 Police may not have time to take a report right now.
If the burglar is out of your home before you call them, your local police department may want to wait until morning, Monday, or even longer to have an officer come out to take the routine report of the burglary. They can;t drop everything to come out to do some routine paperwork, and may even have you schedule an appointment for a couple of days later, so they can make sure that both you and an officer are available.

[golfish]

doesn't anybody have insurance on their guns?

[tbc]

Another stupid law.


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[retiredAFcop]

doesn't anybody have insurance on their guns?

To a certain amount, they are covered under a general homeowner's/renter's policy. There is also the insurance which comes with NRA membership.

Of course, a copy of a police report is required to make a claim.

The issue here is mostly of creating a law that is largely unnecessary, and that has time restrictions that could be very harmful to innocent crime victims.

[A-J]

See, now it all makes sense. I couldn't understand why legit gun owners would have a problem reporting a stolen gun. Now I understand most agree like me that it's a good idea, but to make it a law is stupid. Especially since the laws on the books or proposed on the issue are so poorly worded.

[Irv]

If you don't report it you may not get it back if found. May just end up in the melting pot.