Connecticut Man Arrested Because A Thief Stole His Legally Owned Gun

[rangerrebew]

Connecticut Man Arrested Because A Thief Stole His Legally Owned Gun
 
Brian Anderson
September 19, 2015

So you think that gun control laws don’t punish the law-abiding while enabling the criminals? A man in Connecticut, a state with some of the most unconstitutional gun laws in the nation, was just arrested because someone stole a gun from his truck. His crime? Being a lawful gun owner.

The New Haven Register reports that 66-year old Vincent Brescia called Orange, CT police to report that several items had been stolen from his 2012 Nissan Frontier on Wednesday night. One of those items was a .38 caliber revolver he stored in the truck’s glove compartment.

Now you would think that police would treat Brescia as the victim of a theft here. At the very least, that they would show up and take a report. But that ain’t what happened at all. Instead, the police arrested the man for being careless with his firearm. They say Brescia left the doors to the truck unlocked and that his gun didn’t have a trigger lock on it.

The actual charge is second-degree reckless endangerment, a class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 2 years in prison.

Mind you, Brescia was the legal owner of the gun and had a permit to carry it. Notice I said, “had” because in addition to arresting him, police also seized his handgun permit and he will likely loose his gun ownership rights.

This is from the City of Orange’s FaceBook page regarding the incident:

    The theft of a firearm punctuates the importance of securing valuables. Additionally, the owner of an improperly secured firearm which is stolen will be held to the highest level of accountability.

Like I said, Connecticut has some seriously restrictive gun control laws, but the closest thing I could find regarding this is a provision that guns must be properly secured if there are children present. I don’t know that any kids were around this guy’s truck and he has been charged with reckless endangerment, a crime usually reserved for people that cause harm to others or place them in eminent danger. This is beyond messed up.

One of the other Connecticut gun laws is that gun owners are required to report firearm thefts in the city or county where the crime occurred. After what happened to Vincent Brescia, I bet people are going to be reluctant to report a stolen gun. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if Brescia’s .38 is the last reported stolen firearm the state ever has.

If you needed another reason to oppose liberal gun control insanity, Connecticut just gave it to you. A good guy goes to jail while a bad guy is running free to commit more crime. The victim of a crime is looking at 2 years in prison while the perpetrator, if the cops bother looking for him, probably won’t see 2 weeks in jail. Somebody explain to me how this bullshit makes the streets safer.

http://downtrend.com/71superb/connecticut-man-arrested-because-a-thief-stole-his-legally-owned-gun

[andy58-in-nh]

Hard as it might be to believe for those who have no personal recollection, Connecticut used to be a normal state. 

My father was born there, and graduated from U Conn, where he won numerous awards as a member of its rifle team. That's right. I said a university located in America once (in the 1940s and '50s) had a rifle team. He owned quite a number of guns as a state resident, including an M-1 Carbine. I wish I had it today, as it would be worth well over $3000... but I digress.

Sadly, like many of its neighboring states, Connecticut has become a redoubt of lunatic Leftist politicians, equally nutty government functionaries, and of course, their parasite class voters. Armed career criminals, including literal boatloads of illegal aliens, now run rampant in places like Bridgeport and New Haven (home of Yale University, naturally).

Meanwhile, honest folks who go through the grueling process of buying a firearm in the Nutmeg State, and the even more grueling process of obtaining a carry permit, get monkey-hammered by the Law at the slightest infraction. Thank God I live in New Hampshire!

[aligncare]

Sort of makes one feel like a dinosaur because "society is changing."  But, change for the sake of change is not always good.

An analogy is these constant computer updates. With every update a new bug, a new problem, a loss of functionality. Come to think of it, it's exactly like updates. Force societal change: lose functionality.

[xfreeper]

The focus of the article should be less about gun laws and more about responsible ownership. The guy leaves a firearm in his truck glove box and the truck unlocked. What happens when his firearm is used in a murder? Is he still a victim of gun laws?

[andy58-in-nh]

The focus of the article should be less about gun laws and more about responsible ownership. The guy leaves a firearm in his truck glove box and the truck unlocked. What happens when his firearm is used in a murder? Is he still a victim of gun laws?

Yes. If I forget to lock a window of my home, and someone breaks in and steals one of my guns and then uses it in the commission of a crime, then it might be reasonably said that I was irresponsible for not having secured the window.

But it does not change the nature of the criminal acts that might then follow as a consequence, nor would it remove the necessity for someone else to have first acted on their own bad intentions. 

There is nothing in the controlling statutes in this case that, as a condition of firearms ownership or vehicular transportation of them, mandate that one lock one's car doors when leaving a weapon in that vehicle. You might make the argument that such a law ought to exist; but it does not in this case.

Speaking for myself, and I would imagine, the vast majority of concealed carry permit holders, I would NEVER leave a firearm in an unlocked vehicle EVER, and for the reason revealed by what occurred in this case.  Doing so is irresponsible, but not criminal. In the absence of clear statutory authority, a person whose gun is stolen under such conditions ought not be treated as a criminal.  Stupid? Yes.     

[xfreeper]

Keeping a firearm in your house is different from keeping it in the glove box of an unlocked car so your analogy is pointless. If there is no statute I don't know what they charged him under. We can agree that regardless of anything else, it was a very stupid, and irresponsible act.