One thing we definitely need to work on as a community is making it harder for thieves to steal guns out of our vehicles. While some of the problems may stem from gun-free zones–after all, where are you going to put your carry gun when you run into a gun-free building?–the truth is that a lot of people do keep guns in the car, and they don’t do a good enough job securing them.
And as per usual, anti-gunners latch onto this to pass laws that seek to punish us for the illegal acts of others.
We shouldn’t have to keep our doors locked and the guns secured somewhere in our vehicles. We shouldn’t be subject to theft in the first place. Unfortunately, the same world where that is reality is the same world where you’re not going to feel like you might need to carry a gun in the first place. We should do better, but the cities and states should also stay out of it.
But how bad is the problem, really?
Well, a study seems to suggest it’s bad enough.
An average of seven guns were stolen out of cars in San Antonio each day in 2024, according to researchers at UTHealth Houston.
The findings, published in Injury Epidemiology, were conducted in collaboration with the San Antonio Police Department.
Led by Alexander Testa, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Management, Policy, and Community Health at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, researchers analyzed 2,465 reported gun thefts from vehicles in San Antonio during 2024 to learn more about where, when, and how vehicle firearm thefts occur.
Where and when thefts are most common
Firearm thefts were most common on the weekends, with more than half of reported incidents occurring on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The majority of thefts occurred in clusters near major highway corridors, including Interstate 410 and Interstate 35, according to the analysis.
While hotels were the most common location of firearm thefts, commercial corridors and entertainment hubs, including The Rim, La Cantera, Alamo Ranch, Westover Marketplace, Park North, and North Star Mall, were also among the areas at the highest risk, researchers found.
Northstar Mall and La Cantera are both apparently gun-free zones. Most of the other places are shopping centers that may have gun-free stores within them. Alamo Ranch is a neighborhood, so that’s a little different, but there are some businesses within the area that are probably “gun-free.” Some hotels also prohibit weapons on the premises, which leaves gun owners with little recourse but to store their firearm in their vehicle during their stay.
Just to put that out there.
Still, that’s 2,465 guns stolen. Out of 1.5 million residents, that might not sound like a huge number, but we need to remember that one percent of the population is responsible for 63 percent of the violent crime. That’s a population of about 15,000 for San Antonio, and those stolen guns would arm a significant portion of those people.
Now, the fact that at least two of these “hot spots” are entirely gun-free zones while others have gun-free stores probably contributes to some of the issues here, and I suspect you’d find similar outcomes in most other cities.
But the onus is still on us to police our own if we don’t want governments doing it for us.
We won’t like how they do it.
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