Surge in Gun Thefts Linked to Rising Crime
The number of stolen guns reported to police rose by 29 percent in 10 major U.S. cities over the past two years, a fact that police and criminologists say is helping fuel the ongoing rise in violent crime and homicide,
Landwebs
The number of stolen guns reported to police rose by 29 percent in 10 major U.S. cities over the past two years, a fact that police and criminologists say is helping fuel the ongoing rise in violent crime and homicide, reports the Wall Street Journal. Martin Devine, commander of the Pittsburgh police department’s narcotics and vice unit, and other police officials, attribute the surge of stolen guns to the uptick in sales and to new gun owners behaving irresponsibly. Americans have purchased a record number of guns over the last two years, with the number of federal background checks for gun purchases hitting a record 21 million in 2020 and 18 million last year, the second-highest on record.
Meanwhile, murders in the U.S. rose nearly 30 percent in 2020 from the prior year and remained at elevated levels in 2021, 8 in 10 of those committed in 2020 involving guns. Criminologists say there is a connection between the number of stolen weapons, most of which are taken from cars, and the number of firearm homicides in a city. Nationally, reports of lost and stolen guns rose 6 percent in 2020 and dipped by 2 percent last year, according to the FBI, but national figures don’t include incidents in which owners don’t know the weapons’ serial numbers, and not all law enforcement agencies report their data. In 2020, Atlanta reported roughly seven guns stolen a day (2,758) and Houston reported about ten a day (3,695). Of the 12 major cities that provided at least some data, only Phoenix recorded a decline in gun thefts in 2021.
