WCLO's Steve Benton reports on a request from Beloit police for gun owners to keep records of the serial numbers of their firearms
BELOIT — Trying to recover the 46 weapons stolen in Beloit since the first of the year is bad enough, but police say the task is made more difficult because the owners don't have any record of ownership, or even the serial numbers of the weapons.
Deputy Police Chief Norm Jacobs says only 17 of the guns stolen were entered into a stolen gun data base used by law enforcement across the country.
Jacobs says he's looking into asking the city council to draft an ordinance requiring gun owners to keep records of serial numbers on the guns they have. He stresses, "this is not gun registration." He says the police department doesn't want to deal with that, but it would be easier to identify stolen weapons if they had access to the serial numbers.
Jacobs says he'll do a little more research before moving forward with a proposed ordinance.