The subjects of gun ownership and gun violence have always been quite polarising in the United States and a new set of data shows quite an alarming problem when it comes to stolen guns.
A new data analysis, conducted by the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, stated that more guns are being stoles from vehicles in the United States. This has given rise to the number of illegal firearms around the country and as shootings rise, this makes it difficult to trace the weapons.
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According to the data, 180 cities around the country saw a rise in guns stolen from vehicles between 2019 and 2022. It also pointed out that vehicles are the major source of stolen guns at the moment.
In 2020 alone, around 77,000 guns were reported stolen in the 271 cities included in the study and almost half of them were taken from the vehicles of the gun owners. This is a relatively new trend in the US where burglaries were the main source of stolen guns for a very long stretch of time.
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The data showed that the trend is more or less consistent in a number of states in the country and according to police records, a number of these stolen guns have turned up at various crime scenes.
The study did not offer any specific reason behind this trend but according to NBC News, the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to the rise of guns stolen from vehicles as most people were indoors and the cars were left unattended for a long time making it easier for the guns to be stolen.
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