Reader Eve’s Hubby sent me the articles and his thoughts which I am going to share with all of you because they make sense.
MADISON, Wis. — In the past week, three handguns were stolen from parked vehicles in the west district.
According to a release, all of the weapons are in the hands of criminals. Instead of keeping weapons in cars, the MPD’s preference would be for people to keep them in locked homes.
A Scranton Court resident said a weapon was missing Thursday after the pickup truck had been left unlocked. A Sayner Court homeowner had something similar happen Wednesday. Last weekend a person on Stonebridge Drive said a Berretta 9mm was stolen from his car’s glovebox.
Three handguns stolen from parked unlocked vehicles
After these incidents, I was compelled to collect my thoughts, first about these specific thefts, then on the gun storage failures in general.
It’s likely that these individuals are in the habit of not locking their car doors, weapons with them or not. That alone is bad enough; car thefts themselves have been on the rise here in Madison, mostly with teens going for a joy ride then ditching the vehicle. It’s like they’re getting used to cars practically being left wide open for them to take. Notice the Sheriff mentioned that these are organized criminals here looking specifically for unlocked homes and cars.
Everyone in the gun community has the duty to set the proper example here. No one should have firearms that are not being used, not being locked up. If we don’t self govern, then calls for outside government to regulate storage will increase and will eventually manifest in mandatory storage laws.
Speaking for myself, I never drive anywhere and not lock my car. If I don’t hear it beep three times, then I assume it’s not locked. It doesn’t matter if I’m in a crowded metropolitan area or by myself in the boonies. It’s a habit I never intent to break. Same goes for my car gun safe.
Finally, I think that any gun education should start with two tenets
1-How to properly store your guns before you purchase them
2-How to get in touch with your reps to stave off gun control laws
I am going to add just an observation out of something I read on the second article:
The area’s plague of burglaries and vehicle thefts in which criminals take advantage of unlocked vehicles and residences is continuing and included two home invasions early Friday, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Home Invasions probably were not related to any gun stolen that night, but then again we don’t know if they were found in a car and then people decided to upgrade their criminal activity. Or allow me to be blunt: It would be fucking stupid to be shot with your own gun because you left it unsecured in your vehicle which also was probably unlocked.
PS: You can start the “YOU ARE VICTIM BLAMING!” any time now.
I believe at least most of these firearms are left in cars because the owner cannot Lawfully carry into the premises where they are going.
Very possibly, but does that mean you need to leave them unsecured in an unlocked car?
I bet they would have ensured the doors were locked if they left their cell phone in the car.
Weird how people treat something that cost them several hundred dollars like it was a chunk of 2×4. I do not care whether it is a gun, a cell phone, or a set of cordless tools. I am locking the door to my car when I get out of it. Even if it is empty of “valuables” I am still locking the door. Not only does the registration and insurance card have my address on it, the garage door remote is there as well. Not giving the thief easy access to my home.
I don’t leave unsecured guns in an unlocked car. I also don’t have “Gun Inside” NRA or other pro gun organizations stickers on my vehicle.
Complicated issue.
Leaving an unsecured firearm in a car is an unwise thing to do. With that being said, I am not sure that it should be illegal, with the caveat that the owner of a stolen gun should be held civilly liable for a crime committed with that gun if the owner did not take reasonable steps to secure it.
No different than being sued if a child drowns in your unsecured pool.
The time I left a car unlocked I came out the next morning to find the insides tossed and my under the seat car safe yanked on with damage to the rubber coated steel cable from how hard they had jerked it against the seat hardware.
My shame is that they took my spare change a maglight and a fixed blade camilus knife I had in the console. That shame was enough for me to double check the car now just the same as I check the front door or that I have my wallet and sidearm and knock on wood i haven’t had a lapse in practice since. The safe was empty but I already feel bad enough giving the jackwagon a good knife I cant imagine what it would be like if I had left a firearm.
Every day I put two bags in to my car and every night I take two bags out to the point its become a reflexive routine where it doesnt feel right if I carry something into the house first like food or groceries.
I admit to messing up and arming someone who could have used it to break into something or comitting a crime or he could have just pawned it. There is no excuse for my lack of judgement but it sure has made me change my behavior on this issue.
Keep beating this drum long and loud. In a perfect world we wouldnt have to lock our cars and we could leave a Korth pistol on the front seat with no thoughts of concern. But we don’t live in a perfect world which is the very reason we carry in the first place.
RE: “Victim blaming”
To the Left/anti-gun side, gun owners contribute to every problem known to mankind. We are by definition not victims, so it’s never inappropriate to blame us for anything and everything.
That said, not all “victim blaming” is inappropriate. A lone white guy who wears a KKK hood to a Black Panthers rally is probably not walking away unscathed, and neither is a lone black man with a BP armband who starts shouting down a Stormfront meeting. That doesn’t give either group the right or moral authority to assault the lone guy, but it’s recognized there are some things you just don’t do, some lines you just don’t cross without a DAMN good reason.
There are the legal/Constitutional arguments, which are valid. But there are also the moral/responsible arguments, which you need to have if you want the public to not dismiss you outright. (Put another way, you can’t just HAVE the right, you have to BE right.)
You may have the legal right to leave an unsecured gun in an unlocked car (barring “safe storage” laws), but that doesn’t make it a good and moral idea, and it makes you — and by extension, all of us — look like an idiot and/or an asshole. You don’t do yourself or us any favors if you surrender that moral/responsible high ground out of convenience or stupidity.
Do that, and I for one WILL blame you for whatever happens.
Wait a second here…are there seriously people who don’t lock their cars as a matter of course? I’ve been doing that for years even before I started keeping a bare minimum (as in 50 bucks worth) of emergency tools in the glove box.
I have a number of small town friends that I met in college that the idea of locking their front door when no one was home or locking their car doors any time was a foreign concept. Hell my best friends family didn’t even have a working lock in the door becy they never locked it anyways. And this is all in the past 15 years.