Survey Shows California Law Enforcement Can’t Account for Hundreds of Missing Weapons

A survey of firearms among southern California law enforcement agencies showed that 329 weapons have gone missing over the past five years. The guns included handguns, shotguns, AR-15s, M16s and have been determined to have been either lost or stolen. The funny thing is, that this is OK under the law. Despite the fact that many of these guns have ended up in the hands of criminals (or directly used in crimes), no one will be held accountable.

The tally comes from the reporting of 134 different police agencies. The biggest offender was the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, who had a whopping 103 guns missing. A handful of guns were found in the possession of criminals. One example found a service handgun in the possession of a parolee. In another instance, a San Francisco deputy failed to report his service weapon as missing, for two years. He got a call one day saying that it had been recovered during a murder investigation. According to the deputy, his ex-wife took it and he simply didn’t tell anyone.

Tracking down agency issued weapons doesn’t seem to be a priority for many agencies. Of the agencies contacted to participate in the survey, 24 failed to respond entirely. Other agencies in California, who have conducted their own internal audits, have had surprisingly similar results. The Oakland Police Department found that over a six year period, more than 300 handguns, shotguns and other firearms had vanished. Some agencies do annual audits of their inventory, however, larger agencies have a much harder time keeping track. The 103 weapons that went missing in Los Angeles account for only a small fraction of the 20,000 weapons they have on the books.

One of the biggest problems is that there is no law governing police accountability in this area. Shocking as it may be, even in states where civilian registration is required, police do not have the same mandate. Police may keep records of firearms for accounting purposes, but as of yet, there is no law in any state that requires tracking, documentation or reporting of issued weapons. One of the questions one has to ask is: why are so many weapons going missing? Police are trusted with great responsibilities. Maintaining proper control of your firearm shouldn’t be too much to ask.

The need for some form of gun control for police is seemingly in order. We have already seen the effects of guns ending up in the wrong hands, and it is appalling to think that the police have contributed. The police can’t seem to be left to their own devices and not screw everything up. The conductors of the survey stated that the number of guns they found missing is most likely just a small fraction of what they would find, if every agency in the state participated.

Sources: RT.

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