(Stateline) Washington A recent analysis, which focuses on a commonly disregarded source of illegally circulating firearms, shows that a growing number of handguns are being taken from parked cars, particularly in urban areas.
An analysis of five years’ worth of gun theft data reported to law enforcement in sixteen metropolitan and rural cities with populations over 250,000 was published by the neutral think tank Council on Criminal Justice. According to the data, gun thefts from motor vehicles increased significantly between 2018 and 2022, although the overall rate of recorded gun thefts was constant.
Over the course of the five-year period, gun thefts during residential and business burglaries decreased by 40%, but the number of weapons reported stolen from vehicles rose by 31%. Between 2018 and 2022, the overall rate of gun theft increased by 42% in large urban regions and decreased by 22% in rural areas.
Data from almost 2,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide that regularly provided thorough crime reports to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System between 2018 and 2022 served as the basis for the conclusions. When combined, the agencies account for 12% of all law enforcement agencies in the country and around 25% of the U.S. population.
A rising body of evidence indicates that firearm theft, especially from vehicles, is a significant but frequently disregarded source of guns used in crimes, as gun violence continues to engulf communities across the nation. Although there is still a dearth of evidence, certain studies indicate that gun violence tends to increase in locations where thefts have taken place and that stolen firearms are disproportionately recovered at crime scenes.
However, there is currently no national system for tracking stolen firearms, and national statistics on gun theft is still lacking. Official police records frequently exclude even the most basic information, such the number of firearms taken in each reported event.
Experts believe additional research is desperately required to understand how stolen firearms drive larger cycles of violence, especially because crime and firearm policy are top priorities for the Trump administration.
According to Susan Parker, a research assistant professor in Northwestern University’s Department of Emergency Medicine and one of the report’s authors, “we really don’t have a full national picture of stolen guns.” Thinking about prevention when you don’t know much is incredibly tough.
According to the report’s conclusions, parked cars are now a significant vulnerability in firearm security that might be fixed with improved data gathering, public education, and policy.
It is very important where you keep your firearm.
Recent legislation in several states, such as Colorado and Delaware, mandates that weapons kept in cars must be stowed in secure containers. Similar laws requiring safe storage and more stringent reporting guidelines for stolen or lost firearms have been contemplated by a number of other states in recent years.
The Giffords Law Center, a nonpartisan gun safety organization, claims that just 16 states and the District of Columbia currently compel gun owners to notify law authorities of lost or stolen firearms.
It is very important where you keep your firearm. According to Parker, a growing number of stolen firearms come from automobiles. Changes in how we carry our firearms should maybe be matched by changes in how we think about keeping them secure and out of the hands of criminals.
Memphis, Tennessee, had the greatest rate of gun thefts among the 16 cities in the survey in 2022, with 546 reported instances per 100,000 residents. That is more than ten times higher than Seattle’s rate, which was 44 per 100,000, and nearly twice as high as Detroit’s, which came in second at 297 per 100,000.
With 234 cases per 100,000, Kansas City, Missouri, had the third-highest rate, followed by Milwaukee (219 cases) and Nashville, Tennessee (210 cases).
Although homes were still the most frequent location for gun thefts overall, a considerable increase was seen in the percentage of gun thefts that took place in parking lots, garages, and on public roads. Vehicles were implicated in 40% of all recorded gun thefts by 2022, up from 31% in 2018.
In metropolitan areas, the number of vehicle break-ins that resulted in firearms being taken nearly quadrupled from 37 per 100,000 in 2018 to 65 per 100,000 in 2022.
The sites of thefts have changed as parked cars have become a more common target for criminals. Approximately 50% of all gun thefts from cars that were recorded in 2018 took place at homes. That percentage decreased to about 40% by 2022, whereas car thefts in garages and parking lots increased by 76%. Additionally, the survey discovered that over the course of five years, there was a 59% increase in gun thefts from cars on roads, highways, and alleys.
The percentage of car break-ins that resulted in gun theft increased from 18% to 24% in the most rural areas, where gun ownership is frequently more prevalent. That percentage rose from 6% to 10.5% in metropolitan areas.
