Gun-Free Zones Strike Again: Car Break-Ins Up 31%
Scott Witner - July 13, 2025 14 comments
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A new report from the Council on Criminal Justice shows gun thefts from parked cars jumped a staggering 31% between 2018 and 2022. But what the report doesn’t bother to mention is why so many law-abiding gun owners end up forced to leave their firearms behind: so-called “gun-free zones.”
Alan Gottlieb, Chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), didn’t mince words. “A legally-owned firearm is safest when it’s with its owner,” he said. “Yet every time a law or policy creates a ‘sensitive area,’ we’re told to disarm and leave our guns locked in a vehicle — easy pickings for thieves.”
Think about it. Whether it’s grabbing lunch, attending a public meeting, walking into a church, or shopping at the mall, thousands of Americans have to stash their carry gun in the glovebox or center console to comply with local ordinances or private property rules. The result? Criminals have a convenient buffet of unattended firearms.
And it’s not like these “gun-free zones” stop violence. “We know mass shootings are more likely in gun-free zones,” Gottlieb pointed out, citing armed citizens who have stopped active shooters in churches, synagogues, and shopping centers — like the young man who took down a killer at Indiana’s Greenwood Park Mall before more lives were lost.
“These laws disarm the good guys and create safe hunting grounds for criminals and lunatics,” Gottlieb said. “It’s insanity. Instead of forcing responsible citizens to leave their self-defense tools behind, we should be encouraging people to keep them close. That’s how you deter theft — and stop the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.”
When bad policy makes good citizens vulnerable and arms criminals instead, maybe it’s time to rethink who’s being protected.
THERE IT IS! 
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