The loaded .45-caliber Glock handgun left in a crowded Denver International Airport restroom belonged to a Drug Enforcement Administration agent based in Houston, according to records obtained Tuesday.I'm going out on a limb here and saying that if trained law officers do this, civilian gun owners do too. The pro-gun crowd like to say they are safer and more responsible than cops, but I don't buy it.
The gun, with one round in the chamber and 10 in the magazine, was found by a traveler last week on the back of a toilet seat beyond Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, according to a Denver police report.
"He states he had used the restroom and had accidently left the handgun there," notes the police report. "At the request of (an FBI agent) the credentials were verified and the handgun was released back to him and he resumed his travels."
When guns are found, especially in airports, the incidents tend to make news. But many more are quietly lost under an array of circumstances.
The Department of Homeland Security had 179 firearms go missing from 2006 through 2008 - in places like cars, restaurants and restrooms - because officers did not properly secure them.
Whatever reports we have about this kind of thing, you can bet it's just the tip of the iceberg. No one, not the DEA or a private individual, wants to admit this kind of mistake unless they are forced to.
Perhaps we have to consider another considerable source of guns which flow from the good guys to the bad guys.
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