That's all I can say to describe how I feel right now.

You see, last spring, one of my sons at Auburn Univesity had his house broken into and the thieves stole a Beretta O/U shotgun, a Remington Model 700 in .270 Win., and various other computers, golf clubs, and televisions (no insurance BTW).

So, I gave him a new O/U shotgun for his birthday, and just this Christamas, I gave him a Ruger M-77, Mark II .270.

Well, to make a long story short, last Saturday, he took a date to a movie, and when he returned, his apartment had been broken into, and all they got was the new .270!

This is getting old!

Well, I guess there's a silver lining to every cloud: at least I know what to get him for his birthday every time it comes around.

I would get him a small gunsafe!

Yep....next buy him a very good safe. To keep all his valuables in.

I would, but he graduates in May, and since he attends Auburn on an ROTC Scholarship, he gets commissioned immediatly. His guns will be in my safe while he attends Ranger School and then goes on deployment, if that is what happens (as expected).

GAHUNTER

Grt him a Pelican case. Have him keep his guns in the trunk of his car. Chain the case to the trunk lid hinges.

Or take the same Pelican case and chain it to something in the house, like a few long lag bolts screwed into the studs.

I am just guessing, but I figure it is someone that has been in his house, and on more than one occasion... How else would they know his firearms had been replaced, and to come get the new batch?

I would ask your son if he has in his circle of acquaintances people of somewhat less than stellar character. Either that, or it is "a friend of a friend". Sorry to hear about this, hope it gets straightened out.

If I was him I would probably keep my guns at home anyway, if that's the status quo there with breakins.

I definitely wouldn't have still had them there for the second breakin.

If the safe you buy is not a real heavy safe, make sure he bolts it down good. Too many of the lower priced, lightweight safes are hauled off intact!

I am sorry about that. In the UK it is suggested that the bolts of rifles and fore-ends of shot guns be stored apart. So that the one without the other is useless.

A big heavy safe is the way to go. You want somethig to stop the dope heads. Kinda like driving without seatbelts. You know the potential, you know the risk. It's your responsibility to protect yourself. Chances are the majority of your anger should be directed at yourself.

How about having him move number one !. Number two getting a SAFE a REAL GUN SAFE !.

That would have been the smartest thing to do after the first theft !. Before purchasing any more Guns !.

have the next one go to school live off-campus.

Rich
Buff Killer

Uh, this was a new off-campus residence. He moved over the summer.

We're pretty sure the first break-in was by a group of crack heads that lived in the same complex. This second one is perplexing. All they got is the one rifle, and they took it out of the case which they, (he?) left behind. Police think it was a definitely another student who knew the gun was there.

The reason he had his guns down there is he has a jam-up place to hunt just 30 miles from Auburn. Between him and my younger son (also a student at Auburn) they killed a truck-load of deer this season.

Don't worry, he won't have any more guns in his Apartment, other than the 1911 he carries(with a permit).

quote:

Originally posted by GAHUNTER:
Between he and my younger son (also a student at Auburn), they killed a truck-load of deer this season.

Seems to me, the younger son may be in need of a gun safe in the future.

I've heard of someone hocking his guns when not in use just to protect them from theft.

It's one of the more unfortunate unintended consequences of the "safe schools" BS....

Times have not changed for the better in some respects, it seems. When I was a student at Stanford after I got out of the Army, I was a member of the Varsity pistol team. We also had a rifle team.

There were a good many students who used the range and associated facilities, even though they did not shoot on either competitive team.

BUT, they (and we team members) could store our firearms in the school gun vaults at the range (mid-campus) IF we wanted. That's what I did with my pistols and a couple of rifles.

AC ; Was that Union or Confederate Army ?.

I doubt these days they would let anyone with a firearm with in 2 miles of Stanford .

Been raining up your way ?. Dam Soggy here .

I guess thives in Alabama loooooves .270win caliber guns...Maybe a caliberchange like to a .308wimp, and they will leave it alone

Hey Ga Hunter,
Sorry about the boy's troubles. How was yorr season?
Michael J

maybe he you could get him renters insurance and out of Auburn Alabama and to a quality school like UGA - Go Dawgs!

I use to pawn my rifles for $5.00 just to keep them under lock and key while I wasn't using them. It was a bit of a hassle but they were locked up.

GAHUNTER, I can feel your anguish. I speak from experience, although my guns were stolen from my home while I was away attending Penn State on the GI bill. So I lost all my guns that I worked hard to get as I was 10 years older than the rest of my graduating class. I got a total of $300, which was the max NRA insurance at the time; 1982.

I can tell you that it changed my outlook on life and people in general. From that time on, I just couldn't look any of my friends or acquaintances in the eye without thinking maybe they were the thieves...I use the plural form because my whole gun cabinet was dragged out the door! I doubt one person could have moved it by himself.

Things went from bad to worse when expensive car parts were dismantled from my car in a unlocked garage soon afterword. It takes a while for someone to unbolt a Hurst shifter and driveshaft to take the Muncie transmission. They even used my own wrenches...lined up from smallest to biggest on the concrete floor under the car with latex gloves lying beside.

Thieves are everywhere. If these 2 break-ins teach you anything, it is that your next investment better be a gun safe or vault. Your only condolence is that the gun's serial numbers might come up on a NICS stolen gun list. Provided you wrote them down and gave them to the investigating police department.

One handgun and one rifle were returned 12 years later. But you can imagine their condition from neglect after all that time with someone who didn't give a damn about them. The police determined that the person(s) who had them were not the thieves who carted them from my home. So, no one was ever prosecuted.

Nobody ever said life was fair, did they?

I'll tell you what, they choose the wrong kid to do this to. My son is a great kid, but he definitely has an anger management problem. In fact, one of the reservations I have about him assuming command in the military is he is one of these guys who could go postal if he loses a man in combat, and follow the example set by William Calley at My Lai.

I undestand from his friends that after the last break in, he confronted the crack heads next door and threatened to rip every one of them from limb-to-limb (and he could; he leads PT for the Auburn Brigade) if any shread of proof ever surfaced that they were involved in the theft. He shook them up so bad that they ran indoors and locked door every time he drove up to his house. (BTW, there was some "evidence" that they were involved in the first break-in, cause one of them confided in another resident at the complex that he was "so f----d up last night" that he woke up and had all this stuff in his house that he had no idea where it came from. The police, however, could not prove anything)

You guys are lucky to have you're amendments to your constitution!, If this happened over here, I know my son would'nt stand an earthly chance of getting a firearms certificate renewed in the same circumstances

Believe me, Steve, when I say I thank God every day for the privledge to live in the United States, where guns are still recognized as simple tools, incapable of malicious actions by themselves. (Of course, there are those who would change that in a heartbeat if they could.)

i'd suggest keeping his guns at your house until he is finished his schooling and military training and gets a settled residence. once he makes 2lt he'll be able to share in the cost of a safe.

This is, of course, another case of closing the barn door after the cows are in the sunflowers, but you should consider Sportsman's Insurance of Ormond Beach, FL. They will insure guns, mounts, rings and optics at full replacement value for $1.25 per hudnred dollars of value. They want you to own a safe or have an alarm system installed, though.

I'm sorry to hear Auburn has come to this state of affairs. When I was there you could have left your rifle on a bench by the library. It would have been there later on the day or maybe someone would have turned it in to Chief Dawson.

Why shouldn't Auburn have problems? Look what's happened to Montgomery.

At least your son's NRA coverage will get you $1000 back.

quote:

Originally posted by GAHUNTER:


Well, I guess there's a silver lining to every cloud: at least I know what to get him for his birthday every time it comes around.

Renter's Insurance?