Stolen guns are bad news and no one should look at them lightly. Every firearm stolen is one that’s likely to create problems for our Second Amendment rights. After all, they’re rarely stolen by collectors who just want to hold onto the firearms and look at them.

No, they’re stolen by criminals who want to use them for illegal purposes.

So, stolen firearms represent a real problem. And in San Antonio, law enforcement is stressing proper storage due to 3,100 firearms being stolen during 2023.

 Law enforcement leaders in Bexar County and federal authorities are asking gun owners to secure their firearms due to the prevalence of gun thefts in the San Antonio area — specifically from vehicles.

During a news conference on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza said 3,146 guns were stolen in San Antonio in 2023.

In Texas’ largest metropolitan areas — San Antonio, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston — more than 25,000 guns were stolen over the last three years.

Esparza hosted the news conference along with SAPD Chief William McManus, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar and District Attorney Joe Gonzales.

They specifically stressed the dangers of leaving guns in vehicles, which McManus said were easy targets.

We’ve talked a lot about leaving firearms in cars.

I get that sometimes, you find yourself needing to go into a place that’s a gun-free zone and you don’t have much of a choice. However, many of these weapons were taken out of not just cars, but unlocked cars. So, if you lock your car, you’re ahead of the pack.

However, a more ideal solution is to get a safe for your car, something that can’t be taken out and that can secure your firearms while you deal with whatever you’re having to deal with.

People leaving guns in cars overnight, unlocked, is an especially braindead act.

Yet not all of these firearms were taken out of cars. Plenty were stolen from people’s homes where they weren’t secured, either.

Again, stolen firearms are bad news for everyone. The only people who benefit from these weapons are the bad guys we are trying to arm ourselves against. Instead, they get the firearms and they deprive us of them at the same time.

Taking a few steps to secure your own property not only keeps your weapons nice and safe from any and all unauthorized hands, it means we won’t be looking at a single city seeing 3,100 stolen firearms in a single year.

That’s a lot and while it’s a fraction of the nearly 1.6 million people who live there, those 3,100 weapons represent a significant boon for those who would use them for criminal ends. I can’t help but think about the tiny fraction of folks in San Antonio responsible for most of the violent crime and how much they’ll benefit from all those weapons now in their own hands.

Some will, undoubtedly, end up in an anti-gun jurisdiction, but the truth of the matter is that those guns are bad news now whereas they didn’t have to be.

Lock. Your. Guns. Up.