Only the police should have guns

You’ve heard that line before from gun control advocates, that only the police are responsible enough to own firearms.

Then tell me exactly why the cowboys special agents at DEA are losing their guns at a record pace?

From 2002 to 2007, DEA lost 91 weapons, the audit found. The DEA isn’t always reporting the losses of weapons or laptop computers to the proper authorities, and when it does, it often comes weeks — even years — after the fact.

A couple of things from the article – first, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m cop bashing, because I’m not.  If you read the article, it lists a lot of the ways that weapons were lost, including weapons that were stolen out of agent’s vehicles – despite a DEA policy which states that agents are to not leave weapons unattended in vehicles.  The ways that agents are losing guns a lot of time is due to simple negligence – they’re not paying attention and leave their weapon in a restaurant or at the gym or something foolish.

While I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that law enforcement officers are being so irresponsible with their firearms, what I want to focus on is the nature of the mistakes.  The vast bulk of them are sheer forgetfulness, agents simply not paying enough attention to their surroundings and they forget their weapon.

As civilians, we can’t afford that level of inattention.  Think about how this article would have been written if CCW holders in, say, Texas were leaving guns in restaurants and theatres.  We don’t have the option to be negligent with our firearms, because the level of scrutiny on CCW holders is much higher.  Take that in light of how apparently easy it is for federal agents to forget their weapons, it is then incumbent on CCW holders to take extra precautions when in public to always be aware of where your carry gun is at all times.

Personal illustration: I was shopping with my wife a while back and she wanted me to try on some jeans.  I was carrying, so into the changing stall I go to try on the pants.  During the entire process, my holster came off my belt only to unwind the belt from my pants, and then immediately went back on the belt when I tried on the new pants.  The reason for this is two-fold: 1) I don’t want to be separated from my gun in a public area like that, 2) I wouldn’t wear pants if they didn’t fit while I was carrying.

We can’t afford to be like the DEA on issues like this; the last thing that the concealed carry movement can afford is an ABC News article about “Concealed carry permit holders leaving guns everywhere”.

1 Comment

  1. I’m not disagreeing with you in the least or trying to trivialize this issue, but I think there is probably one major factor that plays a part in why non-LEOs are much less likely to be forgetful with our weapons.

    We had to buy them.

    When something costs you nothing, is issued to you as a job requirement, and doesn’t really “belong” to you at all, properly caring for it simply isn’t as important to you. Even if there are severe consequences for misplacing it (which I would wager there are not for LEOs), it’s just human nature to take better care of something that you had to personally part with hard earned cash for and would have to personally repair or replace were something to happen to it.

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