BELLEVUE, WA – Will Sean Penn be held personally responsible for any crimes committed with either of two handguns taken from his car after it was stolen in Berkeley, CA recently? He would be if the loss happened in Indiana instead of California.

The Indiana Supreme Court ruled 5-0 Monday that gun owners have a responsibility to the public to exercise “reasonable care” in the safe storage of their firearms. If that standard applied to the Hollywood elite, Penn would be in big trouble, said the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).

“The Indiana ruling relates to the unauthorized use of a gun in the murder of a police officer,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Indiana justices say the parents of a thug, who stole their gun to kill a police officer in 1997, are responsible for that firearm’s misuse, even though it was taken without their permission. By that standard, if either of Penn’s two stolen handguns is subsequently used in a crime, then Penn should be held responsible, and I fully expect Hollywood’s liberal elite to demand he be prosecuted.”

Penn lost a loaded Glock 9mm and unloaded .38-caliber Smith & Wesson when his 1987 Buick was stolen while he was dining at a Berkeley, CA restaurant. The car was recovered but the guns are still missing.

“The Indiana ruling offers a real moral challenge to anti-gunners,” suggested CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron. “Holding gun owners responsible for crimes committed with their stolen firearms has long been the philosophy of liberal elitists. But actor-turned-peacenick Penn is one of their own, and I doubt we will hear any demands that Penn be held to the same standard as an Indiana couple whose gun was used in a terrible crime.”

Added Gottlieb: “Gun control advocates who hail the Indiana ruling should be just as loud in their fervor to hold Penn personally and financially responsible for any crimes committed with his stolen pistols. Yet the silence from liberal gun control extremists is deafening. Where are the traditional whines about irresponsibility in the Penn case? Why aren’t the elitists demanding Penn’s hide for not keeping better track of his guns?

“After Penn traveled to Baghdad to condemn American efforts to get rid of Saddam Hussein, some people suggested that the actor be forced to move to Iraq,” Gottlieb stated. “I think he ought to just move to Indiana.”