The Lakeview gun owner's stolen firearm is but one of the hundreds that slip from the hands of their legal owners every year across metro New Orleans. There is no hard data to show how many of those wind up being used in crimes. But local law enforcement leaders, including New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison and Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, said stolen guns flow steadily through the weapons pipeline that keeps the region's street gangs and criminals well-armed.

"Some high school students have told me it's easier for them to get a gun in their neighborhood than it is for them to find a text book," Cannizzaro said. "That's a very sad state of affairs."

In New Orleans and unincorporated Jefferson Parish combined, three guns were reported stolen, on average, every day of 2015, according to a review of law enforcement data by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. The guns are taken in home burglaries, car break-ins, armed robberies and thefts – some swiped by strangers, some by friends or relatives of their legal owners.