Guns most commonly stolen from cars
Group urges gun owners to secure their weapons
The rate of gun thefts from vehicles in the United States has tripled since 2013, making cars the most common source of stolen guns across the nation, according to a report.
Everytown for Gun Safety found that, on average, at least one firearm is stolen from a car every nine minutes in the United States.
The report analyzed FBI crime data from 337 cities across 44 states – covering a combined population of about 63 million people – between 2013 and 2022.
The rate of gun theft increased each year and spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report. The sharp increase in stolen firearms from cars coincides with a rise in gun ownership in the United States and recent legislation that loosened gun restrictions in some states.
One in 5 U.S. households purchased a gun from March 2020 to March 2022, according to NORC at the University of Chicago. During that period, 1 in 20 adults bought a gun for the first time.
Last November, an NBC News national poll found that more than half of U.S. voters said they or someone in their household owned a firearm.
The dangerous trend underscores the importance of safe gun storage, Everytown said.
“Guns stolen from cars often go from legal hands to the illegal market, where they are too often used to carry out other crimes, including assaults and homicides. But these thefts are preventable, as is the heartbreak and long-lasting trauma of the violence they can cause,” Sarah Burd-sharps, senior director of research at Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement. “Gun owners must securely store their guns – whether in the car or in the home – to save lives.”
A conservative estimate
The rate of stolen guns from vehicles rose from about 21 thefts per 100,000 people in 2013 to about 63 per 100,000 in 2022, according to the report.
While firearms may be stolen from homes, gun shops or individuals, vehicles parked at residences were the largest source of stolen guns. Nearly 112,000 guns were reported stolen in 2022, and close to 62,000 were stolen from cars, the report found.
“A decade ago, the majority of gun thefts were from burglaries of a home or other structure (38%), and roughly a quarter (26%) were from cars,” the report states. “Since then, the nation has seen a stark increase to over half coming from cars. In fact, the past decade’s overall increase in gun thefts is driven primarily by the rise in gun thefts from cars.”
Moreover, the report said the increase in gun thefts from cars is “likely a conservative estimate” as only about one-third of states require individuals to report lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement. Federal law does not require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Stolen guns often used in crimes
“Stolen guns that enter the illegal market are an appealing source of firearms for people who are legally prohibited from having guns,” the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence said.
The center cited an analysis of over 23,000 stolen firearms recovered between 2010 and 2016 that found a majority of the weapons recovered were linked to crimes, including more than 1,500 weapons linked to violent crimes such as murder, kidnapping and armed robbery.
Stolen guns have appeared in numerous criminal cases, according to the Everytown report.
For instance, in July 2021, a gun stolen from an unlocked car in Riverside, Florida, was used to kill a 27-year-old U.S. Coast Guard member as she tried to stop a neighborhood car burglary.
Last month, a 14-year-old boy accidentally killed his 11-year-old brother in Florida with a gun that was reported stolen. The firearm was taken from an unlocked car a few days before the incident and the teenager found the gun in an alley.
Both Everytown and the Giffords Center have said lost and stolen firearm laws can help reduce illegal gun crime. Policies that require firearms to be securely stored and mandate reporting of lost and stolen guns can “reduce illegal gun movements by 46%,” Everytown said in its report.
States with weak gun safety laws have more theft
Everytown found that the rate of gun thefts from vehicles is nearly 18 times higher in places with weaker gun safety laws compared to states with the strongest gun laws.
Earlier this year, the group ranked all 50 states on the strength and impact of gun safety policies. According to the group’s rankings, California had the strongest gun laws in the country, followed by New York, Illinois, Connecticut and Hawaii. Arkansas, Mississippi, Idaho, Montana and Georgia had the weakest gun laws.
In many cities located in states with weak gun laws, the Everytown report said, “high rates of gun ownership and laws that make it easier to carry guns in public create conditions under which gun thefts from cars may be more likely.”
Cities with the highest rate of gun thefts from cars in 2022 were Memphis, Tennessee; Atlanta; St. Louis; Richmond, Virginia; and San Antonio, Texas.
Memphis had over 3,000 gun thefts from vehicles in 2022 while Atlanta had close to 2,500, according to the report.
In contrast, some cities in states with strong gun safety laws, such as Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, had zero guns reported stolen from cars in 2022.
To prevent theft no matter the state law landscape, Everytown recommends that gun owners always lock their vehicles and store their firearms so that they are not visible to others.
There are a variety of devices that make it easy to store guns securely while enabling fast access for gun owners, Everytown said, including lock boxes, console or vehicle gun safes and gun cases. Gun safes are available for every make and model of vehicles, according to the group.
Everytown also encourages adults to secure all guns in their homes, model responsible behavior around guns, ask about the presence of unsecured guns in other homes, recognize the role of guns in suicide and tell others about the importance of safe gun ownership.
Contributing: N’dea Yancey-bragg, Saman Shafiq,