Houston's Stolen Guns

[mikeb302000]

The Houston Chronicle reports

Cabdrivers Mohammed Elsayed and Blaise Nwokenaka, shot dead by the last passengers of their lives, were killed with a .380-caliber Cobra pistol - a gun stolen just 20 days earlier.

Nineteen-year-old Shanetria Grogan was slain by her ex-boyfriend, shot in the head with a .380-caliber Jimenez Arms semi-automatic pistol, also stolen. And 23-year-old Leroy Pierson, killed in a drug deal gone bad, suffered a fatal wound from a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol, yet one more ripped-off weapon.

At least 32,000 guns, some 4,000 every year, have been stolen from Houston-area homes, cars, pawn shops and even gun dealers since 2005, with only 7 percent of them ever recovered, a Houston Chronicle analysis shows.

And this is only Houston, and what we know about. Can you imagine the extent of the problem nation-wide?

The solution is obvious. Safe storage laws plus a reporting of stolen guns requirement would take care of the rest.

This wouldn't be a 100% solution, nothing is, but it would go a long way towards improving things.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Cross posted at Mikeb302000

[Common Sense Party]

1. What is the "obvious" solution? Please leave a comment.

[mikeb302000]

7. I left a link. n.t.

[Common Sense Party]

14. Silly me. I was asking for a solution, not a link.

Seems to me that if you have some great solution, you should be willing to share it.

[petronius]

2. This article is already under discussion in SecMo's thread (with the original Chron title)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/117272310

[MercutioATC]

3. Not to be too realistic here,

but how would reporting a stolen gun prevent the thief (or the person he sold it to) committing a crime with it?

"The solution is obvious"? Hardly.

[mikeb302000]

8. you're playing dumb.

Guns being registered to a particular owner and the requirement to report if the gun is stolen would work to make gun owners more responsible. Obviously you guys need help. You're doing a piss poor job at hanging onto your property now.

[MercutioATC]

12. I asked you a question.

Assume for a moment that I'm completely on board with your idea. How does requiring a legal gun owner to report the theft in whatever timely fashion prevent the person who stole it from committing a crime with it?

[friendly_iconoclast]

15. Don't hold your breath waiting for a cogent answer...

[mikeb302000]

17. that's the wrong question

Yo should be asking, what can a responsible gun owner do to prevent the thief from having such easy access to his guns.

[gejohnston]

18. NYPD can stop selling them to gangs

LAPD can stop putting armories in abandoned buildings with no alarm systems.

[friendly_iconoclast]

19. It wasn't that it was 'wrong', it's more like that the answer is rather inconvenient for you.

From the linked article:

Of the cases reported to Houston police involving stolen guns taken in robberies and burglaries, authorities identified suspects or made arrests in about 8 percent of the incidents.

So even if the owners do what you claim to want, there's a 92% chance that those guns are gone for good- and you take this as proof that the owners are irresponsible?

Let's take another look at your claim about gun owners:

You're doing a piss poor job at hanging onto your property now.

Again, from the article:

More than 2.9 million guns nationwide currently are flagged by police as having been stolen or recovered

Well considering that a quick and dirty Googling gives figures that there are anywhere from 270-310 million civilian guns in the United States, that gives the average gun owner
about a 1% chance of having their guns stolen. Hardly a sign of rampant irresponsibility, imo.

Mikey, you really should try getting another NGO gig. You're doing a piss-poor job as a political blogger...

[SDjack]

4. If you go into a bar in Houston, there's a gun per person.

If you aren't carrying one, that means someone else has two.

[oneshooter]

5. This has already been posted in another Google Dump.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/117272310

Please remove, and look before dumping.

[Clames]

6. Dupe thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/117272310

Not even 6 hours too...

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

10. Whenever I read...

...the words "Dupe thread", my first thought is the French term 'double entendre'.

[ileus]

9. duplicate

[rDigital]

11. Doop

[hack89]

13. Houston's Violent Criminals - there, fixed it for you. nt

[rl6214]

16. Dupe, you and circularmotion but he was first

And you're still posting your blind links to your blog, even though in another thread you told me you weren't doing it. If the solution was that obvious, you would post what the solution was instead of a blind link to your blog.

That's my opinion and I'm stickin to it.