Posted on 07/04/2020 5:42:42 AM PDT by marktwain
In March of 2020, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the United States Department of Justice released an audit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) controls over weapons, munitions, and explosives.
The FBI has 57,812 firearms in their inventory. Extrapolating from the numbers in the survey recorded in the report, the FBI has about 2.8 million rounds of ammunition on hand, relatively small numbers of less than lethal munitions, and small amounts of explosives.
The FBI is not a national police force. They are closer to a national detective, or some say a “secret police” force. Their primary job, as indicated in their name, is investigation, not patrolling, not responding to emergency calls or enforcement.
Given the size of the organization and the number of agents and offices (over 13,000 special agents, 400 domestic offices, 91 foreign offices), the audit shows the agency is keeping very tight control over the firearms it has. The time and resources devoted to this task have been ramped up over the years.
The summation in the audit lumps all the lost and stolen firearms over nearly four years in one paragraph. It makes the absolute numbers look bigger. A common way to lie with statistics is to report absolute numbers instead of rates. From the OIG audit:
Lost and Stolen Firearms – We noted that between
September 2016 and July 2019, 38 FBI Special Agents
were disciplined for the loss or theft of 45 FBI-issued
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
They shouldn’t be losing *any* firearms. Unless it’s in the line of duty (losing a weapon in combat or it falling somewhere unretrievable while chasing someone, etc.), losing your weapon should be cause for instant dismissal.
I remember a story several years ago where a FBI van full of firearms was stolen, as they stopped for a coffee break in Memphis.
Correct. I don’t recall them ever recovering more than a few of them.
As an investigative agency the FBI placed a higher value on agents that had college degrees in, Accounting and Law, and not on the hiring of Law Enforcement Officers.
Then the emphasis turned to the hiring of women and minorities.
Now they have their fill of young idealists, as we have seen
in the current scandals.
I would bet that the average CCW holder has more ability and respect for their firearm than most agents.
An FBI agent follows procedure and leaves a firearm locked in an Agency car. A lowlife breaks in and steals the firearm.
You are saying the agent should be fired? Why?
If the FBI has a dozen or a hundred firearms stolen in a year, it makes virtually no difference to the crime rate in a country with over 450 million firearms circulating.
The amount of tax payer money being paid for these insanely tight controls is stupid.
That classifies as in the line of duty. I’m talking about the ones dropping them in bathroom stalls, leaving them laying about unsecured, etc.
Yup, but remember that most states *already* have Safe Storage laws of one kind or another that are applied with zero tolerance against the average citizen. I see no reason that FBI agents should not be held to the same standard.
Also worth mentioning that FBI standards for securing a firearm in a vehicle are often pretty crap and they issue securing devices that are sometimes openable without tools or the key.
No, that is incorrect information.
28 states have some kind of child access prevention. This is not a general safe storage law, and usually only applies if a child in the house commits a crime with a gun from the house.
Only one state, Massachusetts, requires all guns to be locked up when not in use.
In the four years of the study, there was one such incident. The agent was fired.
“The FBI is not a national police force. They are closer to a national detective...”
A national dick. Back in the day they actually went after and confronted the worst of the worst and engaged in righteous gunfights. Now...excluding such unchristly one offs such as Ruby Ridge Waco etc...they spend their time in cubicles scheming how to frame innocent people. That is when they take time out from playing grab ass with each other.
If you pay attention, there is a powerful clue in the name. The FBI are investigators with powers of arrest
I know an FBI agent that dresses in jeans and drives a pick up. His office includes the grandly tricked out pick up truck that is the bomb squad for a very large territory.
He isn’t cubicle bound.
2.8 million rounds divided by 57,812 firearms only equals about 48 rounds per weapon, a rather surprisingly small amount, especially given the number of rounds many FReepes had before their TBAs that left them tragically gunless.
Ahem. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fbi-agent-drunk-gun-stolen-exotic-dancer-article-1.3621729
And while this is old, still applies: https://oig.justice.gov/reports/FBI/a0227/app2.htm
Lots and lots and lots of “unexplained theft” and “unexplained loss”. Lots of letters of censure. No terminations.
“Left backpack, containing weapon, on the curb while loading car. Forgot about the backpack and drove away. Received censure letter.”
“Agent left weapon on fender of FBI vehicle and drove away. Special Agent received Letter of Censure.”
“Agent left weapon in public phone booth. Special Agent received Letter of Censure.”
I also refer you to page 6, Table II of the report: https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2020/a20041.pdf
Of the firearms stolen or lost by the FBI from 2015 to 2019, please see these notations for Synopsis and Disciplinary Action:
“Left in public restroom: 3-Day Suspension”
“Left on truck bumper: 3-Day Suspension”
“Left in public area: 3-Day Suspension”
“Left in public restroom: 3_Day Suspension”
“Left on trunk of car: 5-Day Suspension”
“Left in hotel restroom: 3-Day Suspension”
Plenty more on the list.
Yeah, calling *bullshit* on the “only one such incident, agent fired” there, guy.
“We found that in 37 of the 38 incidents, the Special Agent responsible for the loss or theft was suspended between 3 and 60 days; the most common suspension was 3 days. For the remaining incident, the circumstances of the theft were serious enough to warrant dismissal of the Special Agent responsible.” That last one wasn’t even “left it unsecured” but “stolen from hotel room,” probably the same I linked above.
I noticed this too. Unless most of the 57,812 firearms are stashed away in evidence or testing/id collections, the FBI has a serious ammo shortage. Even if a 10th of the firearms are active-duty, they have an ammo shortage.
(1) A police captain in Miami loses his service firearm while off duty when he goes with his wife to dinner and uses valet parking. The firearm was left in the unlocked glove box, and the restaurant was a well known Mafia owned restaurant and hangout. No action was taken against the officer.
(2) Two police officers in Orlando go to a judge at his home late at night to get a search warrant signed. The task accomplished, they leave to execute the warrant. One of the officers leaves his service revolver and walkie behind. Within a few minutes, the judge discovers them and calls the police dispatcher and asks that the other officer call him.
The judge does not explain the reason for his request, and a few minutes later, after a quick telephone conversation, a sheepish police officer retrieves the items left behind. He is relieved that his agency will never know and that no report of the incident will cloud his employment record.
My view is that the police captain in Miami should have been disciplined and that that the officer in Orlando got lucky and, anyway, did not quite lose his revolver and walkie. What say you?
Good work.
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