Harvard Injury Control Research Center
Our mission is to reduce the societal burden of injury and violence through surveillance, research, intervention, evaluation, outreach, dissemination, and training.
Theft
In the HICRC survey of more than 1600 US gun owners (2015), 2.4% reported having a gun stolen in the past five years, with a mean of 1.5 guns lost per theft. This represents approximately 250,000 guns theft incidents annually with about 380,000 total guns stolen. Individuals who own many guns, who carry guns, and who do not store guns safety are at higher risk of having guns stolen. Of the four US regions, the South, which is home to 37% of US households, accounts for two-thirds of guns stolen. Although gun theft is a common way that guns get into criminal hands, this study appears to be the first journal article to focus on the epidemiology of gun theft from private citizens.
Hemenway, David; Azrael, Deborah; Miller, Matthew. Whose guns are stolen? The epidemiology of gun theft victims. Injury Epidemiology. December 2017; 4:11.