ABA Resolution on Reporting of Stolen or Lost Guns Passes With New York State Bar Association Support
8.13.2025
The American Bar Association’s House of Delegates on Tuesday approved a resolution from the ABA’s Standing Committee on Gun Violence and the New York State Bar Association urging that gun owners who don’t report the theft or loss of their firearms face stiff civil or criminal penalties.
New York State Bar Association President Kathleen Sweet and Margaret Finerty, chair of the association’s Task Force on Mass Shootings and Assault Weapons, pressed the delegates in Toronto to adopt Resolution 608, which recommends that federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments pass laws requiring that gun owners promptly report missing firearms.
“The theft and loss of firearms happens throughout our country, with about one gun stolen from an individual every two minutes,” the ABA Standing Committee noted in its report advocating for the House of Delegates to approve the resolution.
Seventeen states — including New York — and the District of Columbia already have laws requiring gun owners to report missing firearms to law enforcement. “Reporting stolen and lost guns to law enforcement is a proven way to reduce violent gun crime,” the report of the ABA Standing Committee concludes.
