Steven Mace
09-22-2005, 04:53 AM
6,000 guns missing from Claremore gun museum, state officials say
By AP Wire Service
9/21/2005 9:36:00 AM
CLAREMORE (AP) -- Some 6,000 weapons are missing from a state-owned gun museum and a couple of the firearms have turned up at crime scenes, state officials said.
Law enforcement officers seized computers and 20 boxes of records from the J.M. Davis Arms & Historical Museum on Tuesday as part of their investigation.
When the museum was founded in the late 1960s, its inventory listed more than 20,000 firearms and firearm-related items, said state Auditor Jeff McMahan.
"Now, there are only about 14,000," McMahan said. "Right now, we don't know what happened to the other 6,000 guns."
"I've heard that one missing gun from the museum has been confiscated from a crime scene in New York and another from a crime scene in Muskogee," McMahan said. "That leads us to believe others may be missing."
Duane Kyler, executive director of the museum, denied guns are missing.
"Everything is identified. Everything's cool. I really can't say any more, because that's all I know at this time," Kyler said Tuesday.
Rogers County Assistant District Attorney Patrick Abitbol said his agency and police are working with auditors to investigate the museum's finances and property.
Claremore Police Chief Mickey Perry said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may get involved because some of the guns are fully automatic. A machine gun from the museum was found in Maine in November, Perry said.
"We're just trying to get to the bottom of this whole thing," he said.
McMahan said he sent an auditor to Claremore on Monday in response to an Aug. 10 request for assistance from Gene Haynes, district attorney for Craig, Mayes and Rogers Counties.
In Haynes' letter to McMahan, the district attorney indicated the museum has had past problems with embezzlement and burglaries and has not cooperated with police.
The museum's collection contains such rare items as a 500-year-old Chinese hand-cannon and the world's smallest automatic pistol, the Kolibri, according to the museum's Web site.
The museum also is famous for its "Gallery of Outlaw Guns" which includes Jesse James' .45-caliber Smith & Wesson, Emmett Dalton's .45-caliber Colt, Pretty Boy Floyd's .41-caliber Colt, and Cole Younger's Schofield Smith & Wesson revolver, according to the Web site.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/BreakingNewsStory.asp?ID=050921_Br_abrk6000
Steve Mace
By AP Wire Service
9/21/2005 9:36:00 AM
CLAREMORE (AP) -- Some 6,000 weapons are missing from a state-owned gun museum and a couple of the firearms have turned up at crime scenes, state officials said.
Law enforcement officers seized computers and 20 boxes of records from the J.M. Davis Arms & Historical Museum on Tuesday as part of their investigation.
When the museum was founded in the late 1960s, its inventory listed more than 20,000 firearms and firearm-related items, said state Auditor Jeff McMahan.
"Now, there are only about 14,000," McMahan said. "Right now, we don't know what happened to the other 6,000 guns."
"I've heard that one missing gun from the museum has been confiscated from a crime scene in New York and another from a crime scene in Muskogee," McMahan said. "That leads us to believe others may be missing."
Duane Kyler, executive director of the museum, denied guns are missing.
"Everything is identified. Everything's cool. I really can't say any more, because that's all I know at this time," Kyler said Tuesday.
Rogers County Assistant District Attorney Patrick Abitbol said his agency and police are working with auditors to investigate the museum's finances and property.
Claremore Police Chief Mickey Perry said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may get involved because some of the guns are fully automatic. A machine gun from the museum was found in Maine in November, Perry said.
"We're just trying to get to the bottom of this whole thing," he said.
McMahan said he sent an auditor to Claremore on Monday in response to an Aug. 10 request for assistance from Gene Haynes, district attorney for Craig, Mayes and Rogers Counties.
In Haynes' letter to McMahan, the district attorney indicated the museum has had past problems with embezzlement and burglaries and has not cooperated with police.
The museum's collection contains such rare items as a 500-year-old Chinese hand-cannon and the world's smallest automatic pistol, the Kolibri, according to the museum's Web site.
The museum also is famous for its "Gallery of Outlaw Guns" which includes Jesse James' .45-caliber Smith & Wesson, Emmett Dalton's .45-caliber Colt, Pretty Boy Floyd's .41-caliber Colt, and Cole Younger's Schofield Smith & Wesson revolver, according to the Web site.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/BreakingNewsStory.asp?ID=050921_Br_abrk6000
Steve Mace