Posted on 06/01/2016 8:55:18 AM PDT by nickcarraway
It seems high time for people authorized to carry firearms to stop leaving them unattended in vehicles, especially in the Bay Area, or they should at least find funding to upgrade every FBI, Secret Service, city cop, and ICE vehicle to a Bat Mobile.
San Francisco police reported Monday that an FBI agent lost his .40-caliber Glock handgun after his vehicle was broken into in Alamo Square. The theft took place during a ten-minute period (was the fed taking selfies in front of the Painted Ladies and was thus terribly distracted?). The g-man’s ID badge and FBI credentials were also pilfered. That’s all the info anyone has on this latest embarrassment.
Last year was a terrible year for law enforcement firearm thefts in the Bay Area. In September, a stolen ICE-issued gun was used in the killing of Oakland artist Antonio Ramos. And, of course, two months earlier in the now-infamous killing of Kathryn Steinle, the alleged murder weapon belonged to a Bureau of Land Management agent who had reported it stolen.
Guns are even just lost sometimes, as evidenced by the ICE agent who in February just left his firearm on top of his car before driving off. Or they are stolen from sheriff’s deputies in home burglaries.
Perhaps the saddest part of it all is that this is fairly common, perhaps even accepted. And that the guns are almost never recovered.
The ATF, which ironically is supposed to prevent illegal firearms trafficking, lost about 12 guns a year from 2009 to 2013. And, according to a 2003 GAO report, some 250 guns belonging to federal agents go missing every year, with 80 percent never recovered.
No one is quite sure why this happens, and it’s likely in the best interests of federal agencies for the general public to be in the dark on how agents are supposed to handle their firearms. But guns are a problem, a polarizing one at that, and we’re supposed to handle them with care.
At least someone in San Francisco is doing something about it, kinda. In February, Supervisor David Campos’s law passed requiring certain storage requirements for firearms left in vehicles.
However, it won’t really matter in the cases of federal agents since the law does not apply to outside jurisdictions such as the ones in all the recent stolen guns cases.
Of course, off-duty cops and feds could either a) keep their guns on them or b) leave them at home when they're not encountering bad guys. Or is that too simple?
Only police should have ......................
This wasn’t ‘just LE’....it was the so-called “cream of the Crop, FBI.” Badge and gun...
If this were you or I we’d be facing actual prison time for violating the gun storage laws in California.
Give them a stipend to buy their own gun...once. I’d bet they’d watch over their guns better, if the next one came out of their own pocket.
The gun is what catches everyone’s attention but a gun can be obtained anywhere legally or not. Same for the badge.
The real loss is the credentials which are valuable on the black market. They are difficult to reproduce as they are made by the bureau of engraving and printing to high standards.
Do these federal dumbasses READ THE FREAKING NEWSPAPERS. Even the papers in SF don’t bother to cover up the rampant street crime there. If you are in the auto glass replacement business, it’s PARTY TIME there for you (as long as your own business isn’t robbed, of course).
If these are the best and brightest that we have...then we are in BIG DAMN TROUBLE.
I have family back in cali. For years they insisted that the Bay Area was one of the safest places to live. As of late, they’ve changed their tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnGqdGF-gCs
Auto Theft, Breaking a Window in Public - I bet the police car plainly marked to make it a target.
It begs the question what was this agent doing that he/she didn’t want to be encumbered by the gun, badge and ID? Do FBI agents casually transition in and out of on-duty status on a regular basis? Do they bother to read newspapers?
The steam in bath houses can’t be good for firearms.
Every FBI, Secret Service, city cop, should only carry a Smart gun.
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