FFL Thefts & Burglaries

[jmorris]

Somehow I'm on the BATFs list for the FFL Newsletter. Don't remember signing up but...

I found this interesting in the latest one.
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Firearm Thefts & Burglaries
Robberies and burglaries of firearms from FFLs continue to be a serious threat to public safety. Each year thousands of firearms are stolen from FFLs, and FFL burglaries are on the rise.
•Criminals most often target Type 01 dealers and Type 02 pawnbrokers. Type 01 dealers continue to account for over 50% of all robberies/burglaries and Type 02 pawnbrokers account for almost 30%.
•Handguns account for almost 75% of all firearms stolen and long guns account for almost 23%.
•Between January 1 and December 31, 2015, there were over 400 FFL reported burglaries. During this same time period in 2016, there were over 500 FFL reported burglaries.
•Between January 1 and December 31, 2015, approximately 4,700 firearms were reported stolen in FFL burglaries. During the same time period in 2016, FFLs reported over 7,000.
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I believe FFLs only handling transfers are Type 01 and I know many of those work out of their home. Wonder how many of the break ins they account for.

[bmwrdr]

Thanks for sharing. It would be interesting to know how many of the stolen guns were recovered and how many thiefs/ burglars were brought to justice.

Edit: Here is a report talking about theft/ loss firearm statistics in the U.S.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2014/04/th ... tates.html

[CleverNickname]

•Criminals most often target Type 01 dealers and Type 02 pawnbrokers. Type 01 dealers continue to account for over 50% of all robberies/burglaries and Type 02 pawnbrokers account for almost 30%.

Out of curiosity, I went here and downloaded the latest list of every FFL, from July 2017 (minus C&R FFLs). I pulled it into Excel and got the following stats:

Type 01, 56595 licensees, 70.58%
Type 02, 7906 licensees, 9.86%
Type 06, 2285 licensees, 2.85%
Type 07, 11649 licensees, 14.53%
Type 08, 1099 licensees, 1.37%
Type 09, 77 licensees, 0.10%
Type 10, 349 licensees, 0.44%
Type 11, 229 licensees, 0.29%
Total licensees: 80189

It would appear that type 01 dealers are under-represented for burglaries, but type 02's are over-represented.

[Scott B.]

Somehow I'm on the BATFs list for the FFL Newsletter. Don't remember signing up but...

I believe FFLs only handling transfers are Type 01 and I know many of those work out of their home. Wonder how many of the break ins they account for.

Different FFL types can do transfers.

Type 1 simply means that they are a dealer of firearms.
Type 2 is a pawnbroker.
Type 7 is a 'manufacturer' by ATF's definition of what manufacturing is. It's not the same definition in the real world.

etc.

Depending the business setup you might have several FFLs for one entity allowing you to handle different activities related to firearms, ammunition, and explosives.

Then you add NFA on top of that for more fun, depending on the type of FFL you have.

[jmorris]

What I meant was that I believe those doing transfers out of their home are 01s and wondered what percent of thefts occurred among those.

[Scott B.]

Gotcha. I suspect the numbers of tabletop FFL break-ins are higher, but only as an extension of home break-ins and not targeted FFL break-ins.

Smash and grabs are up and it's something we're all watching closely. I just upgraded our cameras. Went from "that's a 6ft tall male" to "oh that's jim-bob" and his license plate says "I'm a crook" level clarity.