The Largest Source of Stolen Guns? Parked Cars.
The growing number of firearms kept in vehicles has become a new point of contention in the debates over regulating gun safety.NASHVILLE On a Sunday in January 2022, a Glock 9mm pistol, serial number AFDN559, disappeared from a Dodge Charger parked near a Midtown Nashville bank after someone smashed in the rear drivers side window.
Ten months later, Nashville police officers arrested three teenagers suspected in a series of shootings, and discovered a cache of weapons in a nearby apartment. Among them was AFDN559. Forensic analysts would later tie the Glock to three shootings, including an attack in August that wounded four youths and another that wounded a 17-year-old girl in September.
In a country awash with guns, with more firearms than people, the parked car, or in many cases the parked pickup truck, has become a new flashpoint in the debates over how and whether to regulate gun safety.
There is little question about the scope of the problem. A report issued in May by the gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety analyzed FBI crime data in 271 American cities, large and small, from 2020 and found that guns stolen from vehicles have become the nations largest source of stolen firearms with an estimated 40,000 guns stolen from cars in those cities alone.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/25/us/illegal-guns-parked-cars.html?unlocked_article_code=a5TzL8D7C57lS_Om2cS5KY-g2nU4xlYO2Hx9dEBBE81n3SGnnCVeY4RZrpVDe0giRojpKyS640J2_hvsvyruqmV_55SEDK5j5K0UP7yg0-lAjiGX1O90ZJJGuKvd18UCe18u_HERss5tOYH1cMJo0B1Qu8MmKVYae4pgdyT4QeKQKIix-VjfusD4v64yTlvuBC0KFiwq7iVb8pYbEptkvn7E23nBvj6gWHDk-QKzL1xGqBQ1zSWg9QmPPKMp8ydoA5Eramwl3Z1SwVV0ubHlmYQqEZV_Wl0z48Zt8Cgetck8vKBCsPZXNdmArF7ZfsC_ibd6GUuF3cP1hNZp2g&smid=url-share
sanatanadharma
(3,639 posts)The so-called legal gun owners, sellers, buyers, makers are all culpable in the leakage from legal to illegal.
A stolen gun owner should be charged with a crime; new laws if necessary.
If your unattended gun is stolen, you are not a victim; you are aiding and abetting criminal-gun activity.
Docreed2003
(16,817 posts)This is a huge, huge problem here currently. Guns are easily accessible, able to be carried without permit, and people are too careless with weapon storage. It's outrageous and a totally preventable problem.
HeartachesNhangovers
(814 posts)because any gun worth having will cost you at least $400. Leaving $400 cash in your glove box would be really dumb, too.
But I won't give a pass to the criminal who broke into the vehicle, stole the gun, then illegally sold it to someone they probably knew was a full-time criminal. They are the one to blame here.
heckles65
(544 posts)they keep all their guns in a 2" thick safe with a twelve number combination known only to themselves.
Grins
(7,134 posts)
you must get the OK from the police BEFORE you are allowed to buy a gun. One of the MANY!!! requirements is a steel safe for the gun.
And they will come to your HOUSE to see and verify you do.
Dont have one? No gun.
Come to the house and dont have one you said you had?
No gun - EVER.
Lying is PROOF you lack the character and citizenship to have a deadly weapon.
Their background check takes months; similar to a secret clearance from the government.
heckles65
(544 posts)although I know we'll never get it.
Wonder Why
(2,875 posts)"If we ban cars in inner cities, only criminals there will have cars".
That's why they always buy lots of pickups. To protect their Second Amendment rights to carry guns in the back window where everyone can see and steal them.
Wonder Why
(2,875 posts)[link:https://www.hendersonvillelightning.com/news/12587-pair-charged-with-car-break-ins.html|
The article mentions a man and a woman charged with breaking into multiple cars and ends with:
Bother[sic] are charged with eight counts of breaking and entering a motor vehicle, two counts of larceny from a motor vehicle and two counts of larceny of a firearm.
Please make sure you are locking your car doors and please dont store firearms in your vehicles, the sheriffs office said.
So 8 cars were apparently "allegedly" broken into and two guns stolen. That comes out to 25% of the break-ins resulted in guns being found. [They might both have come from a single car. The article is not clear on that.] Think of all the cars stolen and how many guns that could mean.