Tagging a Gun Owners Vehicle

[JohnP]

TAGGING GUN OWNERS VEHICLES PSA WARNING
Gun lovers public service announcement: While I was in a Texas gun store today, my car was tagged on the wheel in the parking lot. The gangs do this on wheels or bumpers at gun stores, shooting ranges, gun shows etc. Later when you are parked at a restaurant, hotel, or other location that’s less well guarded or under video surveillance, other gang members spot the marker and break into the car for a quick gun grab. This is so RAMPANT in San Antonio where we were for a National shoot this summer, the Sheriff of Bexar County came out to brief the 400 participants of our competition. Too bad three teams had already been victimized the first day. This is the first I’ve heard of this in Texas.

Please pass this info along to your 2nd amendment list. Daily check your car, truck or motor home for unusual painted dots, marks, check marks or other strange looking symbols that are not
normal to your type vehicle. It could prevent you from being a victim of robbery, or even save your life if you catch the thief in the act.

This next comment from a Gun Site instructor:

I don’t know how widespread this is becoming, but the info regarding the NSCA Nationals in San Antonio is correct, as all of us who compete in sporting clays know. Competitors there were
having their vehicles marked with a small adhesive dot on the rear license plate or rear bumper, then followed for miles and having their vehicles quickly and efficiently broken in to when parked for lunch etc.

Some crews were working the parking lot at the Nationals itself. 27 high end shotguns were taken there recently. They know when 1400 shooters with high $$ competition guns are in town.

[KySongDog]

Good info to know.   

[Frogman]

Yep!  Saw this on another site!!

Jim

[FinsnFur]

WoW

[yotefever]

I was corrected on another forum where I passed this on to.
They gave snopes which I don't always find factual but here is an answer from the NRA.
I think some people may try doing this since the price of guns has gone up.
http://web.archive.org/web/20120123033410/http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=7264

Friday, January 20, 2012


Long before Al Gore “created” the Internet, gun owners were busy perfecting grassroots networking.  Today, gun owners have an almost unlimited number of ways to spread information crucial to our community. And, while the Internet is certainly an indispensible tool for protecting our rights, an unfortunate side effect has been the fast and easy spread of rumors.

The latest of these, appearing on Internet message boards and in emails, warns of a growing trend of gangsters marking the license plates or wheels of vehicles parked at shooting clubs, gun stores, ranges and gun shows. According to the rumor, the thieves later spot or follow the marked vehicles and break into them to steal guns while their owners are elsewhere.

The reports go on to claim that the tactic has reached “epidemic” proportions in San Antonio, Texas, and specifically, at the National Skeet Shooting Association and National Sporting Clays Association’s National Shooting Complex.  Naturally, the NSC investigated the matter thoroughly. They concluded that the rumor is false on several counts.

First, all of the “suspicious” vehicle markings reported to the NSC turned out to be routineâ€"placed there by those who manufactured, owned or serviced the vehicles. The online reports also suggest that the NSCA National Championship was a particular target of gun thieves. In reality, there were no reported gun thefts at the 2011 event. A claim that a police chief in San Antonio met with 400 shooters to discuss the trend is also false.  (To read the NSC’s full statement, go to http://www.nssa-nsca.org/index.php/2012/01/nsc-response-to-rumors-about-gun-thefts/.)

Gun theft is a serious concern for all gun owners, who should certainly take reasonable precautions to protect their firearms from criminals. But the truth of this story should also remind us that there’s no need to panicâ€"and that it’s always worth taking a few moments to check out tales like this before passing them on.  After all, it would be a tragedy if shooters were discouraged from pursuing the activities they love and exercising their Second Amendment rights due to rampant urban legends.

[JohnP]

There is a group of us old guys that go to breakfast every Tuesday.  One of the guys is a top notch skeet shooter and attends all the big shoots.  He swears that this in fact did and continues to happen.  Another guy is the state military match director and he too confirms this story.  Hard to know what is true anymore but I don't put much stock in SNOOPS.

[FinsnFur]

Yeah...I can certainly see something like this happening. It's not far fetched in the least.

[Okanagan]

Investigation of Snopes has recently proven that site to be less trustworthy and more biased than their reputation claims.  Tagging a car that probably holds valuables is a no brainer.   The Resistance did that with box cars in WWII to keep the Allies from bombing them.

We had three cars in our church parking lot with slashed tires one recent morning.  While the owner got tires fixed, thieves ransacked his home, using his garage door opener and address from vehicle registration.  They hit a bunch of houses in a few days and moved on by the time police fully caught on and word began to get around.

FWIW, that's why I don't wear camo in public, usually wait till I'm on a stand to put it on as an over shell.  I don't want anyone in a restaurant to think I'm a hunter with a firearm in my vehicle:  not the waitress, nor a cop nor a gangbanger. 

The serious divers I dived with in California never put dive stickers on windows or bumpers.  That was for wannabes.  A "diver down" bumper sticker on a vehicle parked at a beach invited thieves to break in with assurance that the owner was out of sight and too far away to return quickly.

[FinsnFur]

I believe every bit of it Clyde.
I grew up south of Milwaukee, Wi. which is overrun by Bloods and Crips, and while I'm in a pretty rural area of the state now, I did learn  to know that this stuff is literally everyday "nothing" to those people.

[KySongDog]

 Gangbanger's aren't a big problem where I live but meth heads are.  That is the very reason I took all identifying stickers off my vehicle including my "FnF" sticker ( ).   I want to look as generic as possible.  Okanagan's idea about camo is a good one and I may start doing that too.

[FinsnFur]

You look anything BUT generic Semp Anything but.