Reading Where criminals get their guns at abqjournal.com doesn’t yield much in the way of new information. In the main, criminals get their guns from theft and straw purchases (someone with a clean record buys a gun on their behalf). Not gun shows. Not internet sales. The majority of the guns used in crimes are stolen. And here’s the thing: an increasing number of firearms are being stolen from cars . . .
For years, police considered residential burglaries as the main route for criminals to get their hands on firearms.
That appears to be changing.
According to some preliminary statistics, APD reported 423 auto burglaries in which firearms were stolen in a recent 12-month period. In a nine-month period last year, there were 256 residential burglaries in which firearms were stolen.
Police also say, however, that more guns might be taken from a single residential burglary than an auto burglary.
But auto burglaries in Albuquerque have jumped from about 6,000 a year in 2013 to more than 8,000 last year.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reported that the Land of Enchantment issued 343k concealed carry permits in 2013, nearly 60k more than 2012. So . . . more guns in cars, more incentive to break into cars. Ah, but why would New Mexicans leave a gun in their car?
While a certain number stash a gat in their whip to keep a “glovebox gun” at the ready, I reckon most do so because they have to. Law-abiding folks that they are, before they enter a “gun free zone,” they lock their handgun in the glovebox.
What’s the bet that car break-ins are clustering around the parking lots of “gun free” zones, such as NM’s Albertsons supermarkets, which caved to pressure from civilian disarmament proponents (e.g., Moms Demand Action for Guns Sense in America) and banned guns from their stores.
The law of unintended consequences. It’s a thing. Especially when it comes to gun control.