Missing In Action

Maybe if they had to buy them they'd take better care.

[...]Fusion has learned that 184 state and local police departments have been suspended from the Pentagon's "1033 program" for missing weapons or failure to comply with other guidelines. We uncovered a pattern of missing M14 and M16 assault rifles across the country, as well as instances of missing .45-caliber pistols, shotguns and 2 cases of missing Humvee vehicles.

"[The program] is obviously very sloppy, and it's another reason that Congress needs to revisit this promptly," said Tim Lynch, director of the CATO Institute's project on criminal justice. "We don't know where these weapons are going, whether they are really lost, or whether there is corruption involved.

More troubling yet is the possibility that some of the missing weapons, which were given to local police departments as part of a decades' old government program to equip cops for the wars on terrorism and drugs, are actually being sold on the black market, Lynch said.

In six Mississippi police departments there are a dozen M14 rifles missing. And these are just the ones they know about.

Jackson Police Department: Missing M14
Meridian Police Department: Four missing M14s
Calhoun County Police Department: Missing M14
Vaiden Police Department: A .45 cal pistol was sold at a gun exchange
Philadephia Police Department: Two missing M-14s
Columbus Police Department: Three missing M-14s
Mississippi Department of Public Safety: Missing M14

Source: Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration

Story here and here.