Hello my name is Eric Minton. My good friend also had a firearm stolen, November 2008. The theft occurred in the small town of Leitchfield, KY. A report was made to the local sheriff, fliers were posted and handed out in our town, as well as, the surrounding communities. An ad was placed in the local newspaper for a month offering a reward. Because my friend wanted more exposure he searched the web for a place to submit his stolen gun, after several hours of searching, he realized no such site existed.
It was that mindset that
www.stolenweapon.com was created. A website designed exclusively with the victim of gun theft in mind. In order for us as individuals to preserve our rights we must take initiatives and become proactive in order to prevent governmental gun control. The major negative stigma associated with firearms are gun crimes, but as we all know guns don’t commit crimes, people do. If legislation was passed to control gun ownership it would only hinder and disarm law abiding citizens because criminals would not register guns.
Although gun recovery is difficult, it is not our websites only purpose. At the moment, a stolen weapon is instant cash for any thief, but with our websites capability it will now allow the general public to privately and easily identify a stolen weapon. This will ultimately drive down the value of these weapons; therefore, preventing and deterring a thief from stealing firearms. Unfortunately, there will always be thieves, but who would buy, trade, or sell a firearm they know has been stolen except thieves, and who likes or wants to deal with thieves. By allowing individuals to check our website for stolen weapons this will potentially help reduce crime rates, which threaten our individual freedoms to own guns.
It was explained to us that the majority of the local law enforcement agencies will not run gun checks for the general public. As we all know the NCIC exists, but it is only available for law enforcement use. Law enforcement plays a vital role in the recovery of stolen weapons and we totally support the service they provide. With over 500,000 weapons stolen annually in the U.S. alone we feel there is room for us to make a difference.
www.stolenweapon.com is completely free. It allows individuals, traders, gun shops, buyers, sellers etc….a viable, interactive opportunity to list and also search for stolen firearms. We understand that victims of gun theft (gun owners) want their personal information kept private and we respect the right to privacy; therefore, the personal and serial number information submitted by a victim is completely private and encrypted with a RIJNDAEL_256 bit encrypted string. This information is not stored in any type of readable form in our database and no one else is able to view the submitted information. If a searcher (anyone searching weapons) performs a general weapons description search without a serial number, only those weapons that match the description will show up with the state it was stolen from. The submitters (victim of gun theft) personal information and serial numbers are not viewable. If a searcher performs a serial number search and there is a positive match to the serial number in the database, then an alert is sent to the searcher that the weapon is stolen. Also, an alert is sent to the original submitter. The submitter is then free to contact his/her local law enforcement agency. Only serial number matches trigger alerts.
The
www.stolenweapon.com site has been designed in a cut and dry fashion in order to keep it quick and easy. This format keeps the site accessible for everyone to use and does not distract the user from its original purpose. Please know we are dedicated to serving your needs and will be constantly evolving to meet them.
Thank You,
Stolen Weapon Team/Co-founder, Eric Minton Radcliff, KY
