If a person discovers that his or her firearm has been lost or stolen, he or she should report it missing to the police within a reasonable period of time. Most guns used in crimes were once bought legally, and then through loss, theft, or improper transfer, made their way into the hands of criminals. By requiring missing firearms to be reported, police can begin looking for a lost or stolen gun before it winds up at the scene of a crime.
Local law enforcement in New York then reports the information to the State Police. Virginia requires gun owners to report the loss or theft of any firearm 30 to local law enforcement or the Department of State Police within 48 hours of discovering the loss or theft.
New Jersey requires gun owners to report the loss or theft of any firearm to local law enforcement where the loss or theft occurred or to the Superintendent of State Police if the locality has no police force within 36 hours of discovery. Connecticut requires firearm owners to report to local law enforcement within 72 hours of when they discovered or should have discovered the loss or theft. Local law enforcement then reports the information to the State Police.
Similarly, Illinois requires a firearm owner to report to law enforcement within 72 hours of obtaining knowledge of the loss or theft of a firearm, and law enforcement must enter this information into a state-wide database. The local law enforcement agency is then required to electronically transmit a description of any lost or stolen firearms to the California Department of Justice. To build a safer America—one where children and parents in every neighborhood can learn, play, work, and worship without fear of gun violence—we need you standing beside us in this fight.
In New Jersey, if a registered assault weapon is used in the commission of a crime, the registered owner of that weapon is civilly liable for any damages resulting from that crime. If your firearm goes missing or is confirmed stolen it is essential to report the theft immediately. Shooting Range Industries will walk you through the proper steps of reporting a missing or stolen firearm.
Upon discovering the stolen or missing firearm make sure to report the theft within 48 hours. If your firearm was stolen and shortly used in a crime and recovered, law enforcement will come knocking on your door and not to return your firearm.
To ensure your innocence report it missing or stolen as quickly as possible. First contact local law enforcement and provide a report of the firearm that has gone missing or stolen, if you know it was stolen. This helps you in a few ways, one it can help recover your firearm if found. Two, if the firearm is used in a crime you are not a suspected or linked to the crime as you are just another victim. David LaBahn, president of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, likened the reports to the AMBER Alert system, the automatic messaging service that blasts out a warning when a child has been abducted nearby.
According to a team of researchers affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, stolen-gun reports also serve as a deterrent to interstate gun trafficking. In Reducing Gun Violence in America , a book published in , the team, which included professors Daniel Webster and Jon Vernick, found that crime guns that originated in states that had a lost-or-stolen reporting law were less likely to end up in another state than guns that came from states without such laws. When prosecuting crimes involving stolen guns, the reports provide a granular level of knowledge that can help district attorneys understand the landscape in which the crime exists, rather than the singular act itself, explained Bill Montgomery, the county attorney in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Stolen-weapon reports also help prosecutors establish a greater degree of proof that people like Nicholson are culpable for purchasing the weapons. In states that differentiate each stolen gun as an individual charge, prosecutors can stack up charges to help make a better case.
Multiple law enforcement sources said that reporting requirements are a key method of combating one of the most common means of diverting weapons to the underground market: straw purchasing. A straw purchase describes a situation in which a person who can pass a background check buys a firearm and provides it to someone prohibited from owning a weapon. In states without a reporting requirement, straw purchasing a weapon comes with limited risk, Epp said.
If police recover a crime gun that they suspect was obtained through a straw purchase, the original buyer can simply claim the weapon was lost or stolen. If a straw purchaser claims that the weapon was stolen in a state with a reporting requirement, however, police are provided with a vehicle for investigating — and potentially charging — the individual. Without a stolen gun report, the paper trail ends at the moment of sale. State legislators have faced opposition to reporting-requirement laws even in states otherwise friendly to gun control legislation.
California governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown both vetoed bills that would require the reporting of missing firearms. The law finally passed when it was added to a ballot initiative known as Proposition 63 in The Trace found that even states with reporting requirements rarely enforce them.
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