http://www.beloitdailynews.com/articles/2009/03/31/news/local_news/news01.txt
By Hillary Gavan
hgavan@beloitdailynews.com
Police ask owners to keep record of serial numbers: 46 guns stolen so far in BeloitGun owners in Beloit need to be responsible by recording their weapons' serial numbers and storing them properly, which will help prevent thefts and help recover them after a burglary.
Exactly HOW does recording serial numbers help prevent thefts?
Proper storage is a no-brainer, if one is intelligent enough to be trusted with a weapon.
“It's hard to track weapons without serial numbers,” said Deputy Police Chief Norm Jacobs. “Most people would feel terrible if they had a weapon stolen from their home and a year or two later it came up used in a robbery or in an incident where someone got hurt.”
I suppose these people would be carefree if they had recorded the serial numbers, and later the gun was used in a crime. I love how officials try to work emotion into everything.
Why, exactly, do the police need to "trace" a weapon? If they can show it was used in a crime, it's evidence, obviously. If the possessor is not allowed to have that weapon, how is it important where he got it?
Jacobs said 46 weapons were reported stolen in Beloit so far in 2009, and several were taken in home burglaries. Others were taken out of automobiles when owners were illegally transporting them. Jacobs noted that in Wisconsin a gun must be unloaded, encased and located in a non-passenger area of the vehicle.
In other words, the only way to transport a weapon in Wisconsin is to make it unusable as a defensive device. Typical Democratic mindset - only the police and 'trained professionals' can carry ready to act - the rest of us need to call 911 and pray.
How does one who owns only a pickup with an open bed transport his legally possessed weapon?
Notice how the guns 'taken out of automobiles when owners were illegally transporting them' are rightly listed as 'stolen'. Nowhere in the Second Amendment do I see any requirements for enclosing an unloaded gun while transporting it.
Theft is still theft when a government official does it.
Or, did I misunderstand, and people illegally transporting weapons called the cops to report their illegally transported guns were stolen? I know crooks are generally stupid, but this is akin to the stoner calling the cops because his roomie smoked all the weed.
Of the weapons stolen only about half the owners were able to give police the serial numbers. Only 17 of 46 weapons were entered into a stolen gun database used by law enforcement across the country to identify stolen weapons.
Why were not all 46 entered into the stolen gun database at least by make and caliber?
I would like to have seen statistics on how many of those guns were returned to their rightful owners who DID have the serial numbers.
Jacobs said that weapons stolen so far this year include: .357 magnun Ruger revolvers, 9mm Smith and Wesson semi-automatic handgun, 6 shot Derringer, Winchester shotgun, and a Remington Arms 308 rifle with scope.
Interesting, but not pertinent. The thieves take what they find, and the cops recover what they find.
“These stolen weapons are untraceable with no serial number. As with any weapon, they never go away, sometimes bounding from thief to murderer until years later being used to hurt someone,” Jacobs said.
Again with the anthropomorphizing of an inanimate object. As if the guns would somehow refuse to jump into the arms of another crook if their numbers were written down in the cop's records, or even in the theft victim's records.
Actually, these weapons are eminently traceable if they were manufactured since the BATFE started requiring manufacturers to serialize and record the guns, and who they were shipped to. At least, in theory - IF the BATFE hasn't lost the records from closed gun shops, something they are legendary for doing...
Any modern firearm with an obliterated serial number is the tool of a criminal, plain and simple.
Gun serial numbers are located on various parts of the weapon depending on the make of the gun. Jacobs stressed that honest gun owners don't take the serial numbers off weapons.
Why would ANY sane gun owner want to mutilate his property? The serial number is important not only to help a theft victim get his property back, but it allows the owner to reliably order parts or get the gun serviced - or be made aware of recalls or defects.
“People who aren't interested in a safe community won't record serial numbers or act responsibly. We are not asking anyone to register weapons, we are just asking to record the serial numbers in case they are stolen,” Jacobs said.
Idiots who don't care if they recover their property don't keep track of serial numbers.
People not interested in a 'safe community' are of two kinds - those who will not take responsibility for their own safety - i.e., 911 callers who would never own a gun, and criminals.
Jacobs said that police see these stolen weapons sold from city to city and then used in small time robberies and sometimes gang shootings.
Exactly how is this going to be helped by legal owners recording serial numbers? He's trying to put a guilt trip on the honest folk, possibly softening us up for that mandatory gun registration - so we can get 'em back if they are stolen.
Right...
“It might be time for Beloit to consider an ordinance requiring owners to supply a weapon serial number to report a theft if they expect their property to ever be returned,” Jacobs said.
OK. So what happens if you DON"T keep the numbers and report the gun stolen?
How about a lot of folk who got the guns through private trades now just don't bother to tell the cops about the theft, to avoid the penalty?
Guns without serial numbers can be destroyed by police.
Guns WITH serial numbers can be destroyed by police - and have been. They have also been stolen by police, from the evidence lockers, and returned to the streets - Chicago had a problem of 'crime guns' returning to the evidence lockers multiple times.
Karen Thorson, an identification technician at the Beloit Police Department, said she drives guns to the Wisconsin State Crime lab when they need to be destroyed properly. Thorson said there are two locked closets full of guns at the Beloit Police Department and the number of guns is increasing.
It's nice to know that those guns are being euthanized in the correct manner. Wouldn't it be even better for the City of Beloit to sell those guns to legitimate owners if their original owners cannot be found? At least this would add some cash to the coffers of a struggling city, and provide Beloit residents with a source of reasonably priced defensive weapons.
Of course, we can't do that! That would result in more guns out there, and the people certainly cannot be trusted with the means to defend themselves!
