A study conducted by gun safety group Everytown revealed that the rate of guns stolen from vehicles has tripled in the last ten years. More guns are stolen from vehicles than any other place in the country, including homes.
The report, based on FBI data from 337 cities in 44 states, indicates that the rate of stolen weapons from inside cars has been skyrocketing, especially since the pandemic. Steve Dettelbach, director of The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), said that the constantly increasing trend highlights the need for people who carry weapons to protect them to prevent them from falling into the hands of criminals:
People don’t go to a mall and steal a firearm from a locked car to go hunting. Those guns are going straight to the street (...) They target violent people who can't pass a background check. They’re going to gangs. They’re going to drug dealers, and they’re going to hurt and kill the people who live in the next town, the next county or the next state.
Gun Thefts From Cars_ the L... by Veronica Silveri
Gun theft rate from cars increased by 200%
In 2022 (the most recent year with available data), nearly 122,000 guns were reported stolen (more than half of them came from vehicles) and it is estimated that at least one firearm was stolen from a car every nine minutes. Over the past 10 years, the rate of other items stolen from cars has fallen by 11%. On the contrary, the rate of guns stolen from cars has increased by 200%.
The report used crime data from the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (information about stolen items and where they came from is included here). The ATF stated that gun theft is one of the main reasons criminals are armed. Between 2017 and 2021, more than 1 million weapons were reported stolen.
