[marktwain]

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.

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?

[Spktyr]

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.

[Spktyr]

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.

[Rockingham]

Here are two true variations of the misplaced firearm scenario.

(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?