Restitution for Gun Store Thefts Needs Second Recalculation

A Pennsylvania man who broke into two gun stores to steal dozens of firearms shouldn’t have been ordered to pay restitution for the stores’ lost income, a federal appeals court said.

The Mandatory Victims Restitution Act seeks to “restore victims to where they stood before the crime” but doesn’t allow victims to recover “consequential damages, or the same loss twice,” the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said Thursday.

A recent report by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which makes a number of recommendations to make restitution fairer for both defendants and victims, observed that restitution—although ...