Stolen guns were used to kill at least two people in Springdale last year, and police agencies reported firearm thefts are increasing.

Web watch The federal government generated a report looking at stolen or lost firearms in 2012. You can read the report at www.atf.gov/resource-center/docs/2012-summary-firearms-reported-lostand-stolen-2pdf/download

Hector Ramos, then 17, bought a stolen gun for $200 he used to kill Fabian Rodriguez and wound two others in March 2015, Washington County Prosecutor Matt Durrett said in email. Ramos wouldn’t tell police from whom he purchased the gun, court records show.

Ramos, who was involved in gang activity, was convicted in May for killing Rodriguez.

While investigating the shooting death of Emily Nash in May 2015, police discovered the .40-caliber pistol found in her hand was stolen from a Lowell residence, according to police documents. Nash was shot in the back of the head, according to a search warrant. Antoine Jackson is charged with capital murder.

In another gang-related incident, police said Rodolfo Martinez, 18, shot and killed Jimmy Rodriguez, 20, in April 2015 in Springdale. Martinez traded a tattoo gun for a .22 Ruger revolver taken from a home in Rogers earlier that year, according to a probable cause arrest warrant in Benton County.

Police said the gun was used in a gang-related, driveby shooting in Springdale on March 14, 2015. No one was injured. Three teens under the age of 18 have been arrested in connection with the shooting.

Springdale police spokesman Derek Wright said he did not think the gun used to kill Rodriguez in April 2015 was reported stolen.

Martinez and three other teens are charged in Rodriguez’s death.

Stolen and lost firearms pose a threat to law enforcement officers and residents, according to a summary report of 2012 data by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“Those that steal firearms commit violent crimes with stolen guns, transfer stolen firearms to others who commit crimes, and create an unregulated secondary market for firearms, including a market for those who are prohibited by law from possessing a gun,” according to the report.

The report is the most recent that directly talks about the link between stolen firearms and crime. It gives an overview of the lost and stolen gun file entries in the National Crime Information Center and of the lost and stolen firearm reports submitted by Federal Firearms Licensees, according to the report.

“The main concern is who’s getting their hands on these guns … felons and juveniles,” Durrett said. “Those are people who aren’t allowed to have them by law. They can’t go to a gun store and buy them, so they steal them or buy them from someone who did.”

Washington County Detention Center records show an increasing number of people were arrested on suspicion of at least one charge of possessing a defaced firearm. Police say firearms often are stolen and then defaced. Being in possession of a defaced firearm can be charged is a person knowingly possesses a firearm with a manufacturer’s serial number or other identification mark required by law has been removed, defaced, marred, altered or destroyed.

At least two firearms stolen in Benton County were used in Washington County crimes, records show.

A gun reported stolen from a home in Rogers in January 2015 was used three months later to shoot at a house at 105 Pierce Ave. No one was injured.

Police said in a Benton County probable cause affidavit filed in September they think a gun found at a known gang member’s Springdale home is the same one used to shoot a 16-year-old near Springdale High School last August. The gun matched the description and the caliber used in the shooting and was at the home of a teen who helped the shooter temporarily evade police, according to the report.

The gun was reported stolen from residents in Siloam Springs, the record shows.

Wright said in email he could not confirm the gun used in the school shooting was stolen. Both incidents are connected to gang activity, Springdale police said previously.

Police arrested a man in August they said shot at a home at 1312 Crutcher St. from a moving car. The gun was reported stolen from a resident in Washington County, according to a Springdale preliminary police report.

The Springdale Police Department does not track stolen guns used in crimes, Wright said. He declined to comment on a connection between gang violence and stolen firearms.

Gangs have a gun culture, and it makes sense for members to try to get stolen firearms, said Meena Harris, director of The National Gang Center.

“If you have a stolen gun, it’s harder to trace it back to you,” she said.

The center is a project jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The center is a resource on gangs for state, local and tribal jurisdictions and works to reduce gang-related crime, violence and gang, according to the center’s website.

The center does not track stolen guns used in gang-related crimes, Harris said.

There must be a community discussion about gang violence before figuring out how stolen guns and gang crime are linked, Harris said. Gangs are not the same everywhere — so any gang problem faced in Springdale would not be the same as Chicago, for example, she said.

“If we want to think about these things thoughtfully and in a determined way and in an informed way, then we really have to start with what’s really going on,” Harris said. “Who are these individuals driving this crime and violence? How are these guns being used? Where are they getting them?”

NATIONAL, LOCAL PROBLEM

Arkansas is among the top 20 states for stolen and lost firearms, according to 2012 numbers in the ATF bureau report.

Nationally, 190,342 firearms were reported lost or stolen in 2012. Arkansas reported 4,091, just less than Oklahoma and Missouri.

Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville police departments reported the number of stolen firearms are up in the past year.

Firearms were stolen most often from county residents, according to the law enforcement agencies. About 115 guns were reported stolen in Washington County last year, according to figures provided by the Sheriff’s Office. Among the four largest Northwest Arkansas cities, Springdale led in gun thefts with 82 last year.

As of mid-June, Springdale had 54 firearms stolen this year, according to a spreadsheet provided by police.

Gun thefts are not just a local problem and do not recognize state and county borders, Scott Sullivan, a Benton County Sheriff’s Office detective has said. The Sheriff’s Office has investigated guns stolen in the county that ended up in Missouri, he said.

About 44 guns stolen in Texas were found in Arkansas between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2015, according to another ATF report. Another 21 guns found in Arkansas were stolen in Missouri.

Gun thefts are troubling because they can be used to commit crimes, but the number of guns stolen per year remains low in Rogers, police spokesman Keith Foster wrote in email.

“The data, in my opinion, does not support the idea that (gun theft) is a major problem (in Rogers),” Foster said in email. “While the number of stolen firearms has increased over the last four years, we are not seeing a corresponding increase in gun crimes. There are many other things the residents of Rogers should be concerned about — domestic violence, distracted driving and motor vehicle accidents, breaking or entering of vehicles and thefts. Those are the issues that are of concern in Rogers.”

Northwest Arkansas residents should be concerned about gun thefts, said Gene Page, Bentonville police community officer.

“Most criminals, they are not buying their weapons legally,” Page said.

PREVENTION

Preventing gun thefts could stop some crimes, Foster said.

The longer a stolen firearm remains missing, the more likely it is to be used in a crime, according to 2015 numbers in a report by the bureau’s Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information on firearms police traced.

Gun owners should secure their firearms, Wright said. That includes gun locks and safes, Foster said.

“I believe that it is the responsibility of a firearm owner to make sure the weapon is properly secured and you should do what you can to reduce the chance of theft,” Foster said.

Police departments across Northwest Arkansas see many cases where guns are taken out of unlocked vehicles, Foster and other police said. Anything valuable should be taken inside, not left in a vehicle overnight, Foster said.

Relatives also sometimes steal firearms, Foster said. Other people lose their firearms, report them stolen and then never tell police when they find them, police said. Sometimes people put their guns in their master bedrooms, which is exactly where burglars look first, Page said.

Sometimes, though, guns are stolen and never reported to police, Durrett said. Last year, five guns that were not reported stolen were found in Springdale. One has been found so far this year, records show.

“The main thing the public can do is to report thefts to police as soon as they discover a gun has been stolen,” he said.

Scarlet Sims can be reached by email at ssims@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWAScarlets.