Stolen guns used for safety create danger

It’s 2:45 Friday morning. Not long before my column on the recent burglary of my Summerlin rental property — “In Las Vegas, no neighborhood is safe from burglary” — would appear in that day’s print edition of the Review-Journal.

What awakened me with a start — I often replay my latest writing effort as I sleep — was the realization of what I didn’t include in the column: The most important item my wife Patricia and I reported stolen to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

A .38 caliber handgun.

Stolen jewelry, checks, passports, a computer full of uncopied manuscripts as well as other important filched documents, including military discharge papers — all mentioned in this space — can’t kill anybody.

The weapon Patricia bought for protection years ago when she was a single mother can.

It bothers me that I concentrated only on what we were groaning and moaning about — not on how that stolen .38 could potentially harm others.

Self-absorption isn’t admirable.

Metro public information officer Michael Rodriguez reports that in 2015 alone nearly 2,500 firearms were reported stolen to the agency.

“For us it’s a big problem,” he said. “Those guns are often used in other crimes.”

And they’re sold on the black market to convicted felons, to those convicted of domestic violence, to undocumented immigrants — people who can’t legally buy firearms.

Research done by the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University found 500,000 guns annually are stolen in the U.S.

While most gun thefts don’t make the news, when they do the seriousness of the dangers they create becomes evident.

In 2015 Las Vegas police found that a stolen gun was used in the shooting death of 28-year-old Tony Munns. In July the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office reported that one of two guns stolen from Stockton, California, Mayor Anthony Silva was the murder weapon in the 2015 death of a Stockton teen.

The thought that my wife’s gun could be used to hurt some innocent soul makes me sick to my stomach.

Though Rodriguez pointed out that under Nevada law there is no need for handgun registration, he said authorities do expect gun owners to be responsible, to lock up handguns when not home.

Rodriguez said homeowners should place firearms in a heavy, fireproof safe that is bolted to the wall or floor.

He conceded renters may find it difficult to drill into a property owner’s wall or floor.

If that’s the case, he said, renters should buy the heaviest safe possible to lock up guns.

Where we had our handgun locked could easily be carried out by thieves. And was.

Our lease doesn’t allow bolting anything to the property.

This burglary once again has me thinking about the pros and cons of having a firearm for protection.

I’m not anti-gun — I used them comfortably in the military — but I wasn’t comfortable with them around my young kids.

For a weapon to be of any use during a break-in, it must be nearby. I feared that when leaving the house I’d forget to move it to safekeeping and my children would find it.

I teased my wife that her handgun gave her a feeling of protection rather than real protection. Most of the time the gun was locked up under the bed. Maybe, I said, if you’re well-mannered, the intruder will wait to allow you to shoot him.

Given police say it’s very possible our place will be hit again — it’s now been hit three times, once when the occupants were at home — my wife’s request for a shotgun for protection seems reasonable.

Self-preservation isn’t a bad thing.

But The Huffington Post’s editorial stance on the question of stolen guns also makes sense: “If You Let Your Guns Get Stolen, You’re a Menace to Society.”

If we buy the shotgun my wife now wants for protection, we’ll lock it in a huge safe when we’re gone.

Even that might not work, however.

Police in Louisiana found several gun owners whose 200-pound gun safes were pried off walls and taken out of windows.

So go the safety dilemmas in a country where the FBI reports there are more than 2 million home burglaries each year.

Paul Harasim’s column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Friday in the Nevada section and Monday in the Health section. Contact him at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @paulharasim on Twitter.