If you drive through any town in Texas at night, you’ll see a lot of cars, trucks, and SUVs either parked in the driveway or on the street in front of the garage. Let’s face it, many of us have a lot of stuff and not a lot of places to put it. So where do we put it? In the garage. And after storing more and more stuff in the garage, suddenly there’s no room for your vehicles.

Of course, sometimes trucks these days are just too long to fit in the garage. Either way, that means more and more vehicles are left outside overnight. That also means more thieves have easier access to your vehicles.

KAMC reported that thefts are on the rise in Lubbock as students go back to school and more items are being left in vehicles. Police and other officials always advise people not to leave valuables in their vehicle overnight. But there is one valuable that police and others say you should never leave in your vehicle overnight: guns.

Never leave guns in your car or truck overnight.

According to the Associated Press, three times as many guns are stolen from cars today as there were ten years ago. And whether here in Texas or elsewhere, guns stolen from cars and trucks left outside overnight are being used against us. They are being used in crimes.

According to AP, half of all stolen guns are stolen from vehicles.

Nearly 112,000 gun thefts were reported in 2022, and just over half of those came from cars – most commonly when parked in driveways or in front of people’s homes, according to the Everytown report. That’s up from about a quarter of all thefts in 2013, when private homes were the most common location for gun thefts, the report said.

So be a good and responsible gun owner. Don’t leave your gun in your car overnight.