California ranks first in gun thefts, report says

Wednesday December 18, 2002

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO (AP) Nearly 1.7 million guns have been stolen nationwide in the last decade, more than 150,000 of them in California alone, according to a report Wednesday by gun-safety advocates.

California ranks first nationally in guns made and sold and gun thefts, according to the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation. But because it also has the largest population, it ranks 29th in guns stolen per resident despite the 153,140 guns stolen in California in the last 10 years.

In terms of sheer numbers of stolen firearms, California was followed by Texas, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

However, the study found large differences in theft rates among states, which it blamed on differences in laws requiring owners to keep their guns locked up.

Gun owner organizations dismissed the report as a new gun control tactic in disguise.

Nationally, 16.8 guns were stolen from every 1,000 households. But six states Alaska, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Georgia had firearm theft rates of at least twice the national average. Alaska led the way with 42.7 thefts per thousand homes.

By contrast, Maine, South Dakota and Wisconsin have a high percentage of gun ownership, but a low theft rate. That's partly a result of the variation in states' crime rates, the foundation said.

The average 170,000 firearms stolen each year across the nation are, of course, crimes in themselves. But the study entitled ``Stolen Firearms: Arming the Enemy,'' says the 1,695,482 firearms that have been reported stolen to police since 1993 are often used in other crimes as well. Of those, 687,857 have been recovered, leaving more than 1 million at large.

The Washington, D.C.-based foundation said it will ask gun dealers to urge gun buyers to lock up their firearms.

It also wants a requirement that gun stores and pawnshops check firearm serial numbers through the FBI's Stolen Gun File Registry before purchasing a used gun. Currently, only law enforcement has access to the registry.

National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said he couldn't comment until the NRA's research arm reviews the study. However, ``the NRA has been advocating the merits of safe storage and safe gun practices for 131 years.''

The foundation found that the 18 states with safe storage laws had theft rates nearly 30 percent below the remaining states.

But gun- and trigger-lock laws have been hotly debated, particularly over the severity of penalties that should be levied against gun owners whose unsecured firearm is used in an accidental shooting or suicide.

Stolen guns are 23 times more likely to be used by a criminal than misused by a child, said Jim Kessler, the foundation's policy and research director.

``A stolen gun is like gold to a criminal because it can be quickly resold without fear of it being traced to them,'' he said. ``If you love your gun, you should lock it up.''

Kessler cited a 1997 U.S. Department of Justice study that nearly 10 percent of prison inmates used a stolen firearm in the crime for which they were imprisoned.

Chuck Michel of the California Rifle and Pistol Association Inc. said the report marks a change in tactics by trigger-lock advocates.

``The argument has been it's important to lock up guns because of child safety. Now, it's because of theft prevention,'' Michel said.

He cautioned against more stringent gun-lock laws as ``a panacea'' for crime. Homeowners need to balance the risk between child safety, self-defense and theft prevention without being restricted by a ``one-size-fits-all'' law, he said.

On the Net:

Read the report, with state rankings, at www.agsfoundation.com

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)