Five things you should know about guns lost by G4S, the largest security company in the world
Private security company G4S arms approximately 5,700 guards throughout the United States. The company is licensed as a federal firearms dealer, even though it's not in the business of selling guns.
A USA TODAY/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation found that G4S employees lose their company guns more than once a week, on average. Some of those guns are turning up in violent crimes, a problem G4S has been aware of for years but has been unable to rectify.
In a November interview, G4S Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel Michael Hogsten said the company in 2012 improved its ability to track company guns by overhauling its weapons policies and digitizing its paper records. The company often finds or retrieves many of the guns it reports missing before they wind up on the street, he said.
“Not one loss of a firearm is acceptable to us,” Hogsten said.
Here are five quick takeaways from the latest installment of our investigation into G4S:
G4S has reported at least 640 weapons lost or stolen since 2009
On average, G4S has reported 59 guns missing per year. Those losses have continued at a steady pace, even after the company changed its policies in 2012. For perspective, the Drug Enforcement Administration — which has twice as many guns as G4S — loses an average of five annually, according to federal audits.
One of the missing G4S guns was held to a woman’s head as a man threatened to rape her. Another was used to pistol-whip a pizza delivery driver. A third ended the lives of two men playing video games.
In several cases, weeks, months or years went by before G4S managers realized guns were missing
In 2011, a G4S manager in Florida told police he couldn’t account for 18 guns, according to police reports. A year later, a newly hired supervisor in New Mexico reported six guns missing, telling police “prior management not keeping track of the firearms” was to blame.
In 2013, a Florida police department dropped an investigation into a G4S employee suspected of stealing a company gun after discovering “there was no consistency to their policies or guidelines that were in place,” according to the police report.
The next year, a G4S manager in St. Louis realized a gun was missing four months after the guard to whom it was assigned had left the company.
MORE: A year of violence at G4S, in charts
Hogsten blamed G4S employees who don’t follow company policy for most of the missing guns. G4S mandates that guards use company-issued cable locks to secure their weapons at home and in their cars so they can’t be moved or fired. Managers are also required by law to report missing guns to ATF within 48 hours.
G4S is now developing a software system that will flag headquarters when a guard leaves the company so executives can track if guns are returned, he said.
Reporters tracked the missing G4S guns
Under federal law, almost all of the information about guns used in crimes is kept secret from the public. Reporters reviewed thousands of pages of local law enforcement records from around the country to create the most comprehensive public accounting of how so many G4S guns had disappeared and where they ended up.
The effort revealed details about 154 of the lost guns, uncovering shoddy record-keeping and a pattern of negligence. Some guards quit or were fired and never gave back the guns. Others pawned them for money. Three dozen guards broke company policy and left weapons unsecured in their cars, where they were stolen. One lost his in a drug deal.
MORE: G4S guards in Florida: lost guns, sex sting arrests and fired cops
The records also show where 60 of the missing weapons resurfaced: Inside a teen’s school locker. With a gun trafficker. In a string of armed robberies.
Many of the lost guns have never been located – either by reporters, law enforcement or G4S. Those guns could be anywhere.
G4S gets the benefits of a firearms license without all the regulation
A federal license saves G4S time by allowing it to buy guns in bulk directly from manufacturers and ship them across state lines.
Most firearms licensees are gun stores or collectors, which are heavily regulated. Anyone who buys a gun from a licensed dealer must fill out a form that addresses criminal history, mental health and other issues that could bar them from owning a weapon. The shop must then contact the FBI, which verifies the information by checking its database. When sending guns across state lines, a licensee may only ship them to licensed dealers, not to other businesses or individuals.
The system is meant to ensure that guns don’t fall into the wrong hands, and if they do, that officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can hold the gun dealer responsible.
But company executives said federal firearms laws didn’t apply to them because they were lending guns to employees, not selling them. ATF attorneys have concurred with the distinction, allowing G4S to have the benefit of a license without following all of the same regulations as gun dealers.
G4S said it screens potential employees thoroughly and that state licensing checks are often more rigorous than the laws placed on gun shops.
Some security companies make employees turn in company guns at field offices after their shifts. Others operate more like police departments, providing a list of approved sidearms for employees to buy on their own with the hope personal ownership will lead to more accountability.
From 2004 to 2017, ATF issued eight violations against G4S for problems with its firearms paperwork
During its most recent federal inspection of G4S, in 2016, an ATF official cited the company for failing to properly document its guns.
That year, 65 guns went missing.
“Some of the crimes that these firearms have been recovered in range from homicides, robberies, domestic violence,” the ATF report states. Other G4S guns were found at suicides or in the possession of convicted felons, who aren’t legally allowed to have them, according to the report.
Hogsten, who said he had not seen the full inspection report until reporters showed it to him, said no one at ATF brought concerns about missing G4S guns to his attention during the most recent inspection.
“Their view is we've done everything they’ve asked of us and more,” Hogsten said. “And they believe our compliance is in line with what we should be doing.”
More in this series
10 scandals at security giant G4S
Five takeaways from our investigation into the world's largest private security company
Security giant G4S has lost hundreds of guns. Here’s where we found them
G4S guards in Florida: lost guns, sex sting arrests and fired cops
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Guards lose and steal G4S guns. Some wind up at assaults, rapes, murders
