[deputy125]

A busy month.

Recovered another glock. the worthless plate # popped off and Serial# grounded off but we were able to raise it and identify it out of a burglary. Two other rifles recovered but dead-end on the numbers.

A Taurus 38 recovered. Again the serial # had been grounded off. Too deeply removed for us. we'll send it off and see if the crime lab can get the numbers. This feller was passing thru from Houston--so no tellin where it belongs.

Unfortunately lost one--handgun stolen out of a deer camp(why the heck leave guns in an unattended deer camp within sight of a highway for 5 months!!!!)Serial # unknown by owner.

Don't know if it has changed, but on Smith revolvers, smith use to re-apply the serial numbers on such damaged guns if appropriate paper work accompanied it from the court.
Don't know if glock or taurus will do this.

 

[blade]

I'm wondering why manufacturers can't hide another serial somewhere inside to help you guys out when you need to recover missing one? Isn't it so obvious?

 

[sheepdog]

Wouldn't want a gun that had been recovered...try to explain why you shot someone with a gun that showed up in Fed database to have killed 3 in Oregon two years ago...and Homer the sheriff who sold it to me just retired and moved away---I wanta login/out book entry on every gun I have...life's too short and lawyers too fat without my help...I get a signed note with Dr. Lic. from individuals...and if I found one NIB on the side of the road I'd turn it in FAST....I never would carry a gun on duty that wasn't papered to me...for someone to go to the trouble to file off the ##, it ain't no virgin...

 

[ratgunner]

Good point sheepdog.

 

[deputy125]

Thats another one i've havn't found. A rare occourance down here but last year had an armed robbery in my little town of 2200 folks. Seems some trash passing thru decided to hold up a mexican cafe. Without going into great detail---this one was not exactly a brain surgeon. He came in and ordered tea close to closing time, sat and drank it, left, came back 3 minutes later with ski mask and gun and committed ag robbery. Waitress remembered him (very few b/m's in town and this was a stranger--everyone knows everyone down here)and reconized the voice as the prior customer. Thru DNA tests from the tea glass was able to identify him. Also had him on a convience store video that same night in town apparently scoping it out but decided to pass as it is the only store open that late in town and by our standards the business traffic was high.
Got a warrant and had him picked up and brought back to our County. He confessed and during confession he stated that he got scared down the road as this was his 1st robbery and he thru the "9" into the bar ditch somewhere along 70 miles of roads possibly in 3 counties. Never found it. Course can you really expect him to be totally honest at this point?

 

[deputy125]

quote:Originally posted by blade

I'm wondering why manufacturers can't hide another serial somewhere inside to help you guys out when you need to recover missing one? Isn't it so obvious?

Yes that would help us out and the owners/victims that had it stolen. But would probably runn the costs up more and they would eventually figure out where it was and obliterate it as well. They constantly educate each other in jail/prison as to how to be a better criminal.

 

[sheepdog]

...better criminal...now there's a phrase....how about superior scumbag?....

 

[Snuffy]

deputy125 sheepdog,
your both right, they come to us and of course its the best college in the world. Their first time in they learn more than any college professor could ever teach them, they learn to watch people size them up and strike when they least expect it. We are all creators of habits we get into a routine and most of the time stay with it as its comfortable to us.
Where I work at now I have an open bay with 106 inmates max comp. I try to never count the same direction twice during a shift. I have learn to listen on the cool, I can hear them say its him, great I love it it means to me that they have to wait for someone else. As I never do anything twice the same way during a shift.
Its a pain to me to have to change up, and I walk that dorm several times an hour. When I get home I am tired. But I am not going to sit there on my duff and let them get away with anything easy.
No one wants to get extra duty because that means they have to work for me most of the time. If they stop to whipe sweat I stop their time, they got to go pee time stops. I only count the time they actually work.
The tax payers pay me to make surte they work for their keep and I want every penny out of those sob's that I can get. Had one tell me she paid taxes too I told her your not now! Once you get out put in for a rebate, now get your tail to work.
As long as I can I will see to it they won't get no free ride not on my watch period. I want them to remember me everytime they even think of doing something wrong. And the ones that make the mistake of coming back well well guess who has been waiting, and the fun just now begins.
I agree sheepdog that paper trail on the weapon would be a long one and take a while to explain.

 

[sheepdog]

Snuffy, crime used to bring a punishment-now it's a lot softer...glad you do it the old way...best deterrent against returns...at least in your jurisdiction...I like the way you keep your mind sharp and working...most city jailers were deadheads on the job-though we had one, Ralph Festavan, God rest his soul, who saved an officer's life out on the street one day...came upon a perp with a cocked gun to an officer's head-stepped out and told him what a 12-ga. would do to his head...the perp threw the gun down and ran...people generally are about as professional as the higher-ups are...your boys should live long, healthy lives!!!

 

[blade]

Well, a car costs lot more than a gun. It has serial printed on almost every part of the body, as well as on engine, and transmission during manufacturing process. So, it shouldn't make much difference on final price. Yeah, it could be stolen too. Anyhow, it's VERY hard to find all of the spots and get rid of all those numbers. At least it's gonna take days and will not guarantee a 100% result. I think, the same applies to the gun. If manufacturers print serial not on a single aluminum plate that is very easy to file or pile off, but on a barrel steel (like "SR" mark on Rugers), and frame cast; that will cause MUCH harder effort for BG to erase gun's history. Even if an original number is filed off the solid steel, it still can be recovered by its density print on internal layers of metal.

 

[deputy125]

What was it? the old smith pinned/recessed mdl 27 that had numbers everwhere? Think they were on the frame 3 places plus under the barrel, on the yoke, and on the cylinder?

 

[blade]

Huh, I believe, in old days they used to make revolvers with five serial number spots: frame, barrel, cylinder, trigger guard, and grip strap. Now you're lucky if there is more than one (especially on polymer frame pistols).

 

[Snuffy]

thanks sheepdog, Blade your right, I guess the changing of the times.

 

[Ron Honner]

blade, you're right. Multiple numbers buried somewhere on the inside of the guns would help traces.

I hated the Glocks when they first came out with their little metal serial number plate. Looked cheap and I suspected there would be problems with the plates being removed or ground off or somehow "lost." I could not believe ATF ever approved those plates.

 

[David the Gnome]

What I don't understand is why people don't use a program like GunSafe (http://www.somanyroads.org/gunsafe/), which is free, to keep a catalog of their firearms. I have every one of my weapons cataloged with the technical specs, serials, accessories, where I purchased it from and their contact info, and it even has a section for images of the weapon. I take shots of each angle of the gun with a close up on the serial to store in the picture section. It even has a section for selling the firearm (Who it went to, where they live, contact information, dates, etc). If any of my guns were ever stolen I have all the information needed to identify my weapons. The best part is the program is free, what's not to love?

 

[deputy125]

Well there you go!

Never new such a program existed---then again i never knew that photobucket existed for the longest either which is where i keep a set of my picks.

A tremondous amount of us unfortunatly are not computer-techno types including myself. Sometimes i have to get my daughter to un-do something i have done to this computer---completely by accident. Already been lectured about not hard killing on it when it does something weird.

Gun owners are it seems a diverse bunch. The computer and internet came to me in my later years and since i did not grow up on one of these things i have to play catch-up while the younger crowd can get around with no problems and are a bunch more tekno savy about such.

Yep some older folks have caught right on to these computers and have no problems but i ain't one of them.

Thanks for that link--i will but that one to work!!

 

[David the Gnome]

No problem, I was quite happy to find GunSafe and even happier to discover it was free.

 

[NY-Dan]

I keep track of my firearms on an excel spread sheet showing

MAKE TYPE MODEL BARREL CALIBER SERIAL# COST DATE

Then take pictures of all guns showing serial numbers and I make copies of all the original purchase reciepts and stash copies of all in a safe deposit box just in case my home burns. I hide a cheap revolver and rifle in an inground weather proof stash x amount of paces from my camp in the woods. I have no immediate neighbors to worry about.

 

[NY-Dan]

And no I am not paranoidschizophenicinsane, I am just waiting for the aliens either from outer space or elsewhere!!, I have been watching since the 1960's............

 

[blade]

quote:I hated the Glocks when they first came out with their little metal serial number plate. Looked cheap and I suspected there would be problems with the plates being removed or ground off or somehow "lost." I could not believe ATF ever approved those plates.

Well, nowadays Ruger is in the same boat. I dunno how hard it is for BG to get rid of the serial plate from P95, but observation makes me think it's not really hard at all. That may not be an issue since there is another side of the coin.

The only thing that could possibly trace back a spent bullet to the pistol is a barrel, which keeps ballistic marks. The modern barrel has no serial</u>, and it's easy to buy online as a spare part, and get replaced in 3 minutes. I'm surprised ATF hasn't noticed that fact.