More on that stolen gun
You’ll recall a reader submitted entry here about how someone’s gun was stolen. A few things:
Buy a damn safe – Ya know, I never had a safe until the Mrs. got pregnant.
Meanwhile, an idea for storing serial numbers. I keep a couple of electronic files with that info on them, though I haven’t updated in a while.
And the author emails:
– I’m know I’m not liable in a legal sense. I just feel partly responsible, which is a different thing. Even if it was a computer or stereo that got stolen, I’d still deserve an extra large dumbass award if it got stolen because I left the house unlocked.
– It’s not so much that someone stole my property, it’s that I made it a lot easier than it needed to be. I recognize that if somebody wants something badly enough, they’re going to get it. That doesn’t excuse leaving it unlocked, and in relatively plain sight.
– I have been in contact with the contractor, and he’s aware that I’ve notified the police that his helpers are suspects. He’s been very helpful on the issue, an absolute dream to work with, under the circumstances. One of the two helpers he brought was a trusted assistant that he’s willing to vouch for, but the other was new, and he’s pressuring that guy hard. I suspect that he’ll never use that assistant again. This actually gives me a bit of pause, because there is one other possible suspect — a satellite TV installer — although the latter suspect was pretty closely supervised the whole time. Still, I’m not 100% certain which one it was, so I’d hate for someone to lose his livelihood because of my mistake. The latter guy seemed much more like the type who would do it, he just didn’t have nearly as much opportunity.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:11 am
I’ve got all my serial numbers in electronic form on the computer, with a backup copy stored on my Web server (but not publicly accessible) plus a hardcopy in a safety deposit box.
Xavier had a really good idea I need to borrow: take a picture of the gun with your driver’s license next to the serial number.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:45 am
Well, according to the Brady Campaign’s “gunlawsuits.org” website, gun owner civil liability is the new anti-gun-owner growth area they are pursuing. The site lists at least a few state supreme court wins for Henigan & Co. on holding owners liable for stolen guns used in later crimes. The poster may want to check with a local lawyer to see if he is in one of those states.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:30 pm
My insurance company has the serial numbers for every gun I have individually insured for replacement. But that only covers a handful. The rest are covered under a general policy. But I spent an afternoon laying each gun down with all of its related accessories and taking several pictures including closeups of the serial numbers. Then burned all of those images, organized by each gun, along with a text file (so it can be read on any computer) with the details of each and burned it to CD-ROM and copied onto USB thumbdrives. Those are stored in a variety of places including off-site.
That way in the event of a theft, I can demonstrate that a) I owned it and b) Took due diligence in my documentation and storage of said arms (as the pictures include the gun in its place in the cabinet and clearly show their cable locks). I figure that way if I was ever accused of being responsible for letting that gun “out on the streets”, I can show the precautions I took.
Alas, some people my level of security is not enough and that I would be simply leaving my guns around for anyone to wander off with. Some would argue I should do even more to prevent my guns from falling into the wrong hands, a worldview I find offensive. Like I someone forced someone to steal my property.
July 21st, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I still do not get the concept that you somehow feel responsible for being a victim. You shouldnt have to have any locks on your property to keep someone from stealing it, the fact that it is yours should be enough. Why cant we stop this crap about how the victim could have prevented incidents like this and start keeping people that have the tendency to do things like this locked up. Generally speaking, if someone does something like this, it isnt the first time that the have done these things. If they had been dealt with harshly the first time, they wouldnt have had the chance to do it a second time.