{"id":114608,"date":"2021-06-15T07:28:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T11:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=114608"},"modified":"2021-06-15T07:28:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T11:28:21","slug":"missing-military-guns-used-in-street-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=114608","title":{"rendered":"Missing Military Guns Used in Street Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Beretta M9 Military Issued Sidearm<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

There is a disturbing trend where more and more weapons go missing from the US military’s arsenal and then end up on the street.<\/p>\n

The Star Tribune writes about this here:<\/p>\n

\n

US military guns keep vanishing, some used in street crimes<\/a><\/h2>\n

By KRISTIN M. HALL , JAMES LAPORTA , JUSTIN PRITCHARD and JUSTIN MYERS\u00a0 [Associated Press]<\/em><\/p>\n

JUNE 15, 2021<\/p>\n

Pulling a pistol from his waistband, the young man spun his human shield toward police.<\/p>\n

“Don’t do it!” a pursuing officer pleaded. The young man complied, releasing the bystander and tossing the gun, which skittered across the city street and then into the hands of police.<\/p>\n

They soon learned that the 9mm Beretta had a rap sheet. Bullet casings linked it to four shootings, all of them in Albany, New York.<\/p>\n

And there was something else. The pistol was U.S. Army property, a weapon intended for use against America’s enemies, not on its streets.<\/p>\n

The Army couldn’t say how its Beretta M9 got to New York’s capital. Until the June 2018 police foot chase, the Army didn’t even realize someone had stolen the gun. Inventory records checked by investigators said the M9 was 600 miles away — safe inside Fort Bragg, North Carolina.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The article goes on to say that junior military personnel that are responsible for them – i.e. armorers – are most likely to blame.<\/p>\n

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Armorers have access both to firearms and the spare parts kept for repairs. These upper receivers, lower receivers and trigger assemblies can be used to make new guns or enhance existing ones.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen issues like that in the past where an armorer might build an M16” automatic assault rifle from military parts, said Mark Ridley, a former deputy director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. “You have to be really concerned with certain armorers and how they build small arms and small weapons.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Then, the article points out that it is difficult to get an accurate count as to how big the issue is.<\/p>\n

\n

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Brandon Kelley said the service’s property inventory systems don’t readily track how many weapons have been lost or stolen. Army officials said the most accurate count could be found in criminal investigative summaries released under yet another federal records request.<\/p>\n

AP’s reading of these investigative records showed 230 lost or stolen rifles or handguns between 2010 and 2019 — a clear undercount. Internal documents show just how much Army officials were downplaying the problem.<\/p>\n

The AP obtained two memos covering 2013 through 2019 in which the Army tallied 1,303 stolen or lost rifles and handguns, with theft the primary reason for losses. That number, which Army officials said is imperfect because it includes some combat losses and recoveries, and may include some duplications, was based on criminal investigations and incident reports.<\/p>\n

The internal memos are not “an authoritative document,” Kelley said, and were not closely checked with public release in mind. As such, he said, the 1,303 total could be inaccurate.<\/p>\n

The investigative records Kelley cited show 62 lost or stolen rifles or handguns from 2013 through 2019. Some of those, like the Beretta M9 used in four shootings in Albany, New York, were recovered.<\/p>\n

“One gun creates a ton of devastation,” Albany County District Attorney Soares said. “And then it puts it on local officials, local law enforcement, to have to work extra hard to try to remove those guns from the community.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a disturbing trend where more and more weapons go missing from the US military’s arsenal and then end up on the street. The Star Tribune writes about this here: US military guns keep vanishing, some used in street crimes By KRISTIN M. HALL , JAMES LAPORTA , JUSTIN PRITCHARD and JUSTIN MYERS\u00a0 [Associated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":114609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-army","category-navy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/92-prop.jpg?fit=4032%2C2272&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ozh1-tOw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/114609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}