Where are all the guns?
As Congress investigates missing equipment and fraudulent
purchases at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a new report shows the
lab can’t keep track of its firearms.
The Department of Energy report, released Feb. 21, described how
the lab’s inventory of firearms was incomplete, though every
weapon was physically accounted for.
“These weaknesses increase the vulnerability of firearms
to loss, abuse and theft,” inspector Gregory Friedman wrote
in his report.
Firearms are used in the lab’s research on gunpowder,
armored coating and projectiles.
The University of California has managed Los Alamos for the DOE
for 60 years and also manages two other national labs.
While some guns were not listed in the inventory, DOE
investigators were able to physically locate all of them.
Lab officials said the guns never left the “positive
control” of lab staff.
“We do not believe there was ever any risk of having
missing or stolen firearms go unnoticed or unreported,” said
Scott Gibbs, Los Alamos Security and Safeguards division
leader.
Lab officials have changed their inventory system since the
investigation to try and correct these problems.
Between 1999 and 2002, the lab received 12 shotguns, 42
automatic weapons and 145 Glock pistols that were not checked into
the inventory.
These weapons had yet to be entered into the lab’s
database as of early December 2002, when the DOE began its
investigation.
There was also a problem in cataloging 16 Knight rifles. The
rifles were not included in the lab’s firearms inventory list
because their description did not include the word
“weapon” or “gun.”
The DOE investigation started after two divisions within the lab
provided different inventory lists in November 2002.
The lab’s Protection Technology division provided an
inventory of 1,550 firearms, but lab officials provided an
inventory of only 886 firearms.
Lab officials blamed ambiguous data entry and a decentralized
property control system for the problems.
Los Alamos property control systems have been under heavy
scrutiny in the past few months, amid reports that $2.7 million
worth of computers, power supplies and other equipment has gone
missing in the past three years.
The House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy Oversight
and Investigations is also investigating allegations that lab
workers bought personal items ““ such as camping gear and
barbeques ““ with lab funds.
Formal committee hearings began Wednesday, as Bruce Darling,
interim vice president of laboratory management, testified before
Congress.
“I am not here to offer any excuses for the business,
property management and procurement problems at the
laboratory,” Darling said in Washington, D.C.
“On the contrary, the University of California takes full
responsibility for these problems,” he said.
Whistle-blower Glenn Walp, who was fired by the lab and then
rehired by the UC, said management was aware of the problems at the
lab.
“They knew about it, but they did nothing about it. Then
when I tried to do something about it, they shut us down,”
Walp testified before Congress, referring to the UC’s firing
of him and fellow whistle-blowers.
The committee could recommend that the DOE should revoke its
contract with the UC, if they determine the UC is unfit to manage
the lab.
With reports from Daily Bruin wire services