Saturday, February 20, 2010
(graphic: irregulargoods)
Taking the secure out of security, federal officers working for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lost 289 firearms over a three-year period. An investigation by DHS’ inspector general found that 243 of those firearms were lost by two agencies: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The weapons—handguns, rifles and shotguns—either fell into the wrong hands or simply disappeared.
In most cases blame was placed on officers who failed to properly secure their weapons. But the inspector general also criticized DHS for not having effective safeguards and controls in place.
At least 15 of the firearms were recovered by local law enforcement officers who found them on “felons, gang members, criminals, drug users, and teenagers.” Specific incidents listed in the report include a CBP officer who “left a firearm unsecured in an idling vehicle in the parking lot of a convenience store. The vehicle and firearm were stolen while the officer was inside the store. A local law enforcement officer later recovered the firearm from a suspected gang member and drug smuggler.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Report Tracks Lost Firearms at DHS (by Joe Davidson, Washington Post)
Homeland Security Officers Lost Many Firearms (by Allan Lengel, AOL News)
DHS Controls Over Firearms (Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General) (pdf)
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