Last Updated on August 20, 2023, 8:44 AM | Published: August 20, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — A recent release of the 2022 Oklahoma City Police Department Annual Report – covering statistics, trends, and information regarding crime and police throughout the city – saw a brief entry deep in the report concerning an alarming trend in gun-related crime:
“The Police Department saw an unprecedented increase in gun thefts from vehicles in 2022,” the report read.
This metric is new for the department and its reports, having only been tracked since June of 2022 in response to a noticeable trend both citywide and nationwide of firearms being reported stolen from vehicles, with some turning up later after being used in crimes.
“It is recommended to not store a firearm in a vehicle,” said OKCPD Captain Valerie Littlejohn. “If you are in a situation where you need to leave a firearm in a vehicle, it is best to store it in a locked box or safe that you can secure to the vehicle. Lock the doors and don’t leave it sitting in plain view.”
By the numbers
Though the number of guns stolen from vehicles – whether locked or unlocked – is still a recent addition to the OKCPD’s tracking, it’s already easy to see a continuing increase.
“We did not track numbers prior to 2022,” Littlejohn said, “but our annual report states 364 guns were stolen from vehicles between June and December 2022.”
According to the report, 137 of those were stolen from locked vehicles and 227 were taken from unlocked vehicles.
With only just over half of the year now gone, the city has already seen that number very nearly broken, signaling that the complete total for 2023 is on track to be much higher than the last half of last year.
“The current year-to-date number for 2023 is 344,” Littlejohn told Free Press this week.
National concern
Oklahoma is far from alone in this problem.
Cities across the nation have seen a rapidly growing trend in recent years of firearms being stolen from vehicles, with cities in South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia all among the highest problem areas according to national gun legislation tracker Everytown.
Beating them all by a wide margin, however, is Tennessee, with Memphis, Chattanooga, Jackson, and Nashville each reporting more than 1,000 guns stolen from cars each year since 2020.
This is owed in large part to the state’s 2013 “Guns in Trunks” law, which allowed any gun owner in the state to keep firearms in their cars provided that they remain out of sight, even if an employer or property owner prohibits guns on their premises.
Before that law went into effect in 2013, Nashville was reporting only roughly 200 guns stolen from vehicles.
This has led to the introduction early this year of proposed legislation in Tennessee of new measures requiring a defined “safe storage” of any firearms inside vehicles and requiring any guns stolen from vehicles to be reported.
The joint House and Senate bill has so far seen slow progress through the Tennessee legislature.
Few local measures
Even as city police say that the number of stolen guns is expected to continue rising in OKC, current state gun laws mean that any steps to curb or address the issue remain unlikely outside of messaging campaigns encouraging safer and more responsible gun storage.
“We have made several posts on our social media about this as well,” Littlejohn said.
There are currently no laws in Oklahoma penalizing owners that do not report their guns stolen, and no legal requirement for pawn shops or private buyers to check or report newly acquired guns against a database of stolen firearms.
Safe gun ownership includes ensuring your guns do not end up in the hands of people who may use them to commit crimes
OKCPD 2022 Annual Report
With “open carry” now in effect statewide, no gun owner in Oklahoma is required to register their weapons.
If they choose to do so, however, Littlejohn says that it could make easier work of tracking and recovering them later if they are stolen, especially if they are then used in a crime.
“We can enter stolen guns into NCIC [the National Crime Information Center] by serial number,” she explained. “Guns can be tracked by serial number, which is why people should always write down the serial number or take a picture of it in case it is stolen.”
Responsible ownership
Since passing the “open carry” law in 2019, Everytown has ranked Oklahoma 43rd in the nation for gun law strength, signaling that any efforts to curb theft are likely to be left up to the responsibility of gun owners themselves.
“Safe gun ownership includes ensuring your guns do not end up in the hands of people who may use them to commit crimes,” the OKCPD Annual Report reads. “Please remove firearms from your vehicles when you are not in them.”
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
