Some 18,394 guns were lost or stolen from federally licensed dealers last year, a 24 percent increase from the years before and the first time since at least 2012 that thefts rivaled losses as the primary reason weapons went missing from dealers, says the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, reports The Trace. The tally includes 7,488 guns that were taken during burglaries, 1,423 in larcenies — police parlance for shoplifting — and 370 in robberies, brazen cases where the thief wielded a weapon or threatened violence to make off with firearms.
Armageddon Supplies in the Janesville, Wi., home of House Speaker Paul Ryan, was burglarized last week by Joseph Jakubowski, an anti-government extremist who is now the target of a massive manhunt. Surveillance video shows Jakubowski using a hammer to break the store’s front door window and jumping in. The video then recorded Jakubowski scooping up handfuls of handguns from a display case before fleeing. Wisconsin is one of 41 states that do not require gun stores to secure their inventory with gun safes or locks; surveillance systems or alarms; bars on the windows; or barriers to prevent cars smashing through the front door. Before he robbed Armageddon, Jakubowski mailed a 160-page manifesto to President Trump threatening to attack public officials and schools. More than 150 state and federal law enforcement officers are involved in the hunt for Jakubowski. Police said they would provide Speaker Ryan and his family with extra security.