Milwaukee a Leader in Gun Thefts

Hanging sculpture of guns from another angle. Photo by Craig Mastantuono.

Gun thefts are on the rise in large cities, a new national study finds, and Milwaukee has seen a higher increase in such thefts than 12 of the 16 cities studied. Only Memphis, Detroit and Kansas City showed a bigger increase in such thefts, the study by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) found.

In those 16 cities, gun thefts from vehicles were 43% higher in 2022 than in 2018, rising from 37 thefts per 100,000 residents in 2018 to 65 in 2022.

But Mayor Cavalier Johnson told Urban Milwaukee he was not “terribly surprised” that Milwaukee ranked so high. “I’ve been talking about this problem for at least the last two years. We have people driving into the city, to Bucks game and other events and their guns are stolen from their cars.”

The Milwaukee Bucks have a long list of dangerous items they do not allow fans to carry into games, including guns, and since at least 2023 have urged fans not to leave guns or other valuables in their cars. They have put up signs saying “Leave It At Home. If You Can’t Bring It In, Don’t Bring It At All.”

“Criminals aren’t stupid,” Johnson notes. “They realize people are driving to the city and don’t take precautions, they don’t have the gun locked and it’s just sitting there waiting to be stolen.”

The CCJ study found Milwaukee ranked first — the worst of 16 cities— in gun thefts from a highway, road or alley. Often the thefts are from vehicles, the study noted. Milwaukee had 95.4 thefts per 100,000 residents, well above the median city of Cleveland (43.4 gun thefts per 100,000) and way above the lowest city, Fort Worth (4.8 gun thefts per 100,000 residents).

And those thefts can lead directly to violence. “Hundreds of thousands of guns are stolen each year, the vast majority of which are stolen from private gun owners,” notes the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, and are “taken from houses, vehicles, and stores.… Gun thefts often divert guns into an underground market where people with dangerous histories are easily able to obtain firearms without restriction. That is why stolen guns are often recovered at crime scenes, including at the scenes of homicides and other violent crimes.”

That can have an immediate impact in a city, the CCJ study suggested: “gun crime appears to increase in neighborhoods from which guns have been recently stolen.”

Via email, Milwaukee Common Council President José G. Pérez told Urban Milwaukee the “number one cause” of “the proliferation of guns and illegal gun activity in the city” is “law abiding citizens with a CCW [Concealed Carry Weapon] permit” who “don’t always secure their firearms (especially in vehicles) and became easy targets.”

Besides gun thefts from a highway, road or alley, the CCJ study looked at three other categories: gun thefts from parking lots/garages, from stores/restaurants/bars and from residences/homes. In those there categories Milwaukee ranked at or below the median. But with all four categories combined, Milwaukee had 1,226 gun thefts in 2022, or 239.2 per 100,000 residents, the study found, fourth highest among the 16 cities.

Memphis had the highest rate of gun theft among the 16 cities with a population over 250,000 that were studied, at 546 per 100,000 people. This was more than twice as high as Milwaukee’s rate and 12 times higher than the lowest of the 16 cities, Seattle, with a rate of 44.3 per 100,000.

While the study found most stolen guns (63%) are from residences, it documented a trend of increasing thefts from parked cars. The rate of guns reported stolen from motor vehicles increased by 31% over the four-year period studied, while the rate of guns reported stolen during residential and commercial burglaries dropped by 40%. And “thefts from vehicles in parking lots or garages increased by 76% over the study period.”

The study offered another way to measure the growth in gun thefts: “The total value of stolen guns exceeded $314 million from 2018 to 2022.”

Johnson says tougher state laws are needed to discourage the rash of gun thefts. “We need greater penalties for people who break into cars and steal guns,” he says. “But at the same time there should be penalties for people who don’t secure guns in their cars. There should be some financial penalty.”

But the mayor has had no luck so far convincing legislative leaders in the state Capitol of the need for such laws. “I’m not talking about taking guns away from people who have them legally,” Johnson emphasized. In fact, his goal is for them to keep their guns rather than getting them stolen.

The proposed laws would also make the job of police officer “easier and safer,” he notes.

Johnson pointed to the speech by Assistant Milwaukee Police Chief Nicole Waldner at the press conference last Thursday about the death of two police officers. “The problem is too many guns,” she said. “I could put an officer on every single corner and that will not eliminate the amount of guns in the hands of people who should not have them all over the city.”

At the rate gun thefts are increasing in Milwaukee, the police could be facing even more firearms next year.