"We have absolutely no idea where the guns are."

[The Freeholder]

Scores of Police Weapons Are Missing in Long Beach

The Long Beach Police Department is missing more than a fourth of its shotguns and an unknown number of revolvers, officials said Thursday.

The second-largest police department in Los Angeles County was scrambling to determine whether the guns were lost, stolen or somehow misplaced within the agency. Investigators have uncovered no evidence so far that the firearms found their way into the wrong hands or were used in crimes.

II'm not going to overly hammer the PD for this, although I would think there would be some sort of periodic inventory of their weapons--I know I count muzzles every so often, and I'm the only person with the combo to the gun safe.

My point is that this is one part of our answer to those from "the other side" who think only the police and the military should have guns. "Funny you should say that, because the Long Beach PD lost x% of their guns, and I've never lost even a single one. It doesn't make me really comfortable that those guns could be in the hands of criminals. Why, how can I protect myself?"

 

[1911 guy]

Inventory.

I fail to see how Officer X being in possesion and charge of weapon 123 and armorers doing their jobs, even sloppily, can account for missing weapons. If I'm a patrolman, I'm responsible for my sidearm and possibly a shottie in the car. If I'm an armorer, I'm responsible for anything in the armory. How's that hard to keep track of? I did SDF on the USS Carl Vinson. The last hour of every 12 hour shift was weps inventory. A khaki and a P.O. to each RSL and the ships armory. Daily. Thousands of weapons. I'm sure P.D. has a smaller inventory.

 

[telomerase]

Ken Alibek says that that the Soviet biological weapons program just wandered off and left their Ebola/flu stocks. The GAO found in an audit that the US DoD has misplaced missiles. So what's a few revolvers?

 

[redneck2]

Let's see...

if I'm an FFL and lose track of one gun, or can't account for every gun in inventory, it can be a felony

if I'm a cop, I just shrug my shoulders and say "I dunno....."

 

[Tom C.]

When I was in the Marine Corps, we inventoried small arms weekly. I would bet they (Long Beach PD) haven't inventoried their small arms for years.

 

[JJohnston015]

Of course, it's precisely because they're held to a higher standard that they don't need to keep as close track of their guns as "civilians" do. Don't you understand?

 

[armoredman]

Rangemaster for AT Systems years ago - inventoried weapons every night. On board ship 20 years ago, inventoried every day, only lost one - over the side in 100+ feet of water. EOD got it, and I watched idiot sit in the armory and clean it.
How can you lose that many guns?

 

[Fly320s]

The guns are not lost or misplaced, they are currently in the posession of Long Beach's finest (or former finest). I'll bet a shiney, new nickle that present or past officers took those weapons, probably with a "wink and a nod" from a supervisor.

What the heck, it's only the government's money, right?