STAMFORD — After reporting that his gun had been stolen out of his open car on Monday night, a city man was arrested on a reckless endangerment charge.
Sgt. Jennifer Pinto said police were called to Reynolds Avenue at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday on a report of a car burglary that involved a stolen gun. The owner of the car, Christopher Jerome, 26, parked his car at about 8:20 p.m. Monday and, thinking that he was going to get back into the car a short time later, did not lock the doors.
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Under a new law that went into effect Oct. 1, Jerome was charged with a misdemeanor count of unsafe storage of a gun in a motor vehicle in addition to the reckless endangerment charge. The new law makes it a crime to store a gun in a locked car if it is not also put into a safe, locked in the glove box or stored in the car’s trunk.
Stolen pistol leads to reckless endangerment charge for Stamford man
And it gets worse. Te police confiscated all the weapons he owned plus if found guilty in either charge, he will lose his gun permits.
My post about cars being broke in and the necessity and responsibility we as gun owners have to make sure our weapons are secured did not fare well. I even got accused of victim blaming!
I really don’t get the cavalier attitude when it comes to guns in cars. Simple methods for securing a gun inside a vehicle are available and are inexpensive, but suggesting we do so offends the sensibilities of some apparently. The problem of people breaking into cars is not going to go away anytime soon. It behooves us that we do our part and even should start a campaign so other gun owners join the simple idea of locking guns in cars or simply locking the cars to begin with.
If we do not do it ourselves, government as no problem coming up with a law to force-you-or-else. Ask Jerome how is he feeling about it.
I can see where this will be heading. There will be a Bernie Getz backlash just as soon as this word gets spread among the gun-owner community. “My gun wasn’t stolen. It was ‘lost’ in a boating accident in another state.”
How much do you want to bet that the next few hundred or more stolen guns NEVER get reported to the police?
The law of unintended consequences.
But a stolen gun, used in a crime, in a state that has FOIDs and registration? The last legal owner will be their first suspect, and at the least they’ll get you for failing to report the theft.
People who say they shouldn’t have to secure the guns in their car, sound eerily similar to the uber-feminists commenting on “rape culture”.
“Guns and self-defense aren’t the answer; they’re victim blaming. The answer is to just teach men not to rape.”
Sounds an awful lot like: “Safe storage in my vehicle isn’t the answer; that’s victim blaming. The answer is to just teach thugs not to break into cars.”
The first doesn’t make any practical sense, and the second isn’t any better.
What’s especially amusing to me is this: The same people saying they shouldn’t have to secure their guns in their cars, probably don’t think twice about keeping their laptops and other valuables out of sight or in the trunk — or taking those things with them — because (heh!) they don’t want them to get stolen.
Here’s the deal: If you’re going to leave a gun in your car, lock it up. If you’re not going to lock it up, take it with you. If you’re not going to do either of those, leave it at home.
Imagine you live in a “may issue” CCW state and have a CCW. Now imagine your gun gets lost / stolen. If you don’t report it, you’re breaking a law but it’d be hard to prove. If you report it, you risk having your CCW revoked
You do you.Enough armchair quarterbacking.
Connecticut? Anti-gun State for sure, will do anything to disarm people.
And the same punishment for po licemen who “lose” their weapons with frequency?
Of course IANAL, but funny enough the statute says it must be locked in a glove box or strongbox; it doesn’t say the strongbox has to be secured to anything. LOL. It also makes no mention of the center console being OK so yea shit laws are shit.
The reckless endangerment charge is interesting since the statute prescribes the charge already. Also interesting is that they wasted no time on this one compared to the magazine laws; IIRC it took about a year for the first magazine charge.
Also, and of course, they guy was a dumb ass for not locking his doors.