CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At a Wednesday morning press conference, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department did not address Charlotte's 80 homicides — but how guns were getting on the street in the first place.
CMPD said while some may think this it's through the black market or underground exchanges, in reality, people are going up to cars and taking them.
"Everybody thinks they’re not going to be a victim,” said CMPD Sergeant Warith Muhammad.
Sgt. Muhammad says that decision becomes a community problem when there’s a gun left inside.
"We have 462 stolen guns on our street," Sgt. Warith Muhammad said.
In almost half of those instances, Sgt, Muhammad said the thief didn’t have to work hard to get it.
"Two-hundred and eight of those were taken from unsecured vehicles," Sgt. Muhammad said.
Sgt. Muhammad said they’ve found the crime of taking a gun has been followed by another.
"These same guns have been used in other violent crimes," Sgt. Muhammad said. "Without a collaborative effort, we’re not going to see these numbers come down."
CMPD is now restarting the Lock it or Lose it campaign, stressing the need for gun owners to lock up their guns. Sgt. Muhammad said they have even worked out a perk.
"Hyatt gun shop has agreed to join this campaign and offer gun safes and gun locks to gun owners at a discounted rate during this campaign," Sgt. Muhammad said.
Sgt. Muhammad said if we want to see the homicide count lowered, the community can’t continue to make it easy.
"Doing just the simplest things, removing sensitive items and firearms from our vehicles, will help," Sgt. Muhammad said.
CMPD says the easy access of guns is hindering their ability to keep the streets safe and need people to take this seriously.
