Don't Leave Your Gun in the Car If You Live in One of These Cities

Not all car owners carry a gun, but most gun owners still use cars to get around. If you happen to have both, you may want to reconsider what you do with one when you park the other — especially depending on where you live.

Compared to your home, cars are much easier for thieves to gain access and they are infinitely easier to steal. When your car is stolen, everything inside goes with it. The Trace, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to expanding coverage of gun violence in the United States, recently reported on a study showing the number of firearms stolen from vehicles and what cities have it the worst.

The study surveyed 54 U.S. cities and found that Atlanta, Georgia, had more gun owners reporting their weapon stolen from a vehicle than any other. It also had the most firearms reported stolen from vehicles per 1,000 residents, followed by Lubbock, Texas, and Shreveport, Louisiana.

Automobiles are also the most likely source of stolen weapons in some cities. Atlanta police received 1,250 stolen gun reports last year and 69 percent of those were the direct result of vehicle break-ins. That number was 72 percent in Lubbock, 60 percent in San Francisco, and 53 percent in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Despite crime rates having plunged since the mid 1990s, firearm thefts from cars have trended upward in many cities in the United States. Most of the cities surveyed saw an increase over the last few years. It’s an incomplete list of cities, but the organization plans to flesh it out as more police departments provide statistics. The list can be found here.

As many states have eased up on the restrictions against leaving firearms in vehicles, doing so has become more commonplace. The Trace claims that many gun owners say they take their weapons with them when they travel in their car and regularly leave it there while they go about their daily business. With an estimated minimum of 300,000 guns stolen every year and the increased willingness of thieves to target vehicles, they may want to reconsider.

It’s not hard for a thief to grab your Colt 1911 from your 1991 Colt.