“The City Council cited “smash and grab” burglaries that resulted in 144 guns being stolen from Littleton gun stores in the last four years. Statewide, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reported 225 instances of loss or theft of firearms from federal firearms licensees between 2016 and 2019, the latest year data is available.”
What?
Am I reading this right?
Littleton says 144 weapons were stolen from FFLs in Littleton, and the ATF says statewide 225 thefts of firearms. That means a single town (Littleton) accounts for roughly 64% of all weapon thefts in the entire state?
There’s less there than meets the eye. Suppose a state has such good law enforcement and criminal control that only a single theft occurred in the entire state the entire year. Well, in that case, 100% of the thefts would be from a single store, and from that single event. But that’s a good thing - it means that the problem of thefts from FFLs is almost entirely licked, there just being the one single incident statewide.