Originally Posted by Relentless

Yes, that example is stupid and also has nothing to do with what I have said. Kitchen knives and cars are not weapons (anything can be used as a weapon but that is not the sole intent of owning the object). Owning a weapon carries responsibility to secure it. If someone steals your gun and shoots YOU with it, losing your weapon did not injure or harm anyone but you. However, if someone steals your gun and shoots your neighbor, your failure to secure your gun is absolutely part of what proximately caused your neighbor to be killed.

The laws that exist right now which are intended to 'punish' people for losing a gun or having one 'stolen' are much too lax. They ought to be much more strict. If losing a legally registered handgun were a felony, existing Felony Murder statutes would be easy to apply. If you want to go with something less, like a 1+ year jail sentence, 10K dollar fine and being forbidden from ever owning a gun again I'd be fine with that. The idea that people can 'report a gun lost or stolen' and be completely absolved from the damage that gun does in the future is ridiculous. You own it, you secure it. You can't or won't... you should be accountable for that failure.