In November of 2008 I had a rifle stolen which was immediately reported to my local law enforcement.  I also took an ad out in my local paper with a reward offered and posted fliers in surrounding communities at the pawn and gun shops.  What I was really looking for was a way to get maximum exposure for my firearm so that it was common knowledge that it was HOT.  I went on-line searching for the " GO TO " place to post a stolen gun where everyone knew to look.  What I found were many small pockets of this information hidden in gun and hunting forums of one type or another.  I personally felt that the only people that were going to see it were the usual members of those forums and that wasn't what I had in mind.  It was with this mindset that StolenWeapon.Com was founded.
 

    We have set out to create a place for victims of gun theft to post their information as well as a place for the rest of the world to to easily search for it. We have no illusions that this will recover everyone's gun or that it is a perfect system. The system is as good as the information submitted.  We believe that anyone posting their own information understands it is in their best interest to be as accurate as possible.  We also understand the political and social climate which we live in so some key information is encrypted.  The serial number is only shown when an exact match is typed in the serial search field.  We have worked very hard to make this site user friendly but at the same time secure.  This site is NOT, was never intended to be, or NEVER will be any type of national gun registry.  The intent here is common ground for gun owners to share information which is valuable to all of us.
 

     Some may say the odds of this site ever recovering a stolen gun for someone is slim to none and they may be right.  We have the attitude that if we help just 1 person then we would be very proud of that.  There is also a larger issue at hand. If it was common knowledge that when a gun was stolen that it went directly into a database that is at the fingertips of everyone in the firearms community, we wonder if there would be as many stolen?  How many hands would it pass through before it was found in our database?  Would that make a HOT gun virtually worthless ?

Maybe at some point in the future this is the question that will cross a potential thief's mind.  One thing is for certain, at this moment a stolen gun is instant cash. Whether you prefer to look at us as a site for recovery or theft deterrent is up to you.  Either way we are here for those who choose to use us and it is FREE.  Please feel free to contact us with your suggestions as we are evaluating all feedback as we move forward.