(a) A report by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, found that 1.4 million firearms were stolen across the country from 2005 through 2010. This number represents an estimated average of 232,400 firearms stolen each year – about 172,000 stolen during burglaries and 60,300 stolen during other property crimes. The report also found that the vast majority – at least 80 percent – were never recovered.
(b) Auto burglaries in dense urban areas are on the rise, and San Francisco has seen an absolute explosion of auto burglaries. According to the San Francisco Police Department's crime data, an alarming 47 percent spike in San Francisco car burglaries has occurred in the first half of this year. From the beginning of January through the end of June of 2015 there have been 11,917 reported vehicle burglaries in the City and County of San Francisco. That same number during the same time period escalated 62 percent from 2013. And it has skyrocketed to 171 percent from 2010, a year that saw 4,396 reported vehicle burglaries between January and the end of June.
(c) Recently, auto burglaries in the San Francisco Bay Area have resulted in the theft of firearms from vehicles. In July, a San Francisco resident was killed by someone using a handgun stolen four days earlier from a federal agent's car in downtown San Francisco. In August, a firearm was stolen from the UC Berkeley Police Chief's vehicle at Point Isabel Regional Shoreline in Richmond, California. In October of 2015, a gun was stolen from a California Highway Patrol officer's vehicle in the South of Market area of San Francisco. In the same month, three individuals were charged with murdering a woman in Golden Gate Park and a second victim in Marin using a handgun stolen from a car at Fisherman's Wharf. In late October, police officials recovered two stolen guns from cars in the home of a suspected serial auto burglar.
(d) These recent auto burglaries resulting in the theft of firearms have been from unattended vehicles. The City and County of San Francisco finds that it has a strong local interest in preventing the theft of firearms from unattended vehicles and that requiring reasonable measures to secure firearms left in attended vehicles will reduce gun thefts and prevent guns from falling into the hands of criminals.
(Added by Ord. 13-16, File No. 150973, App. 2/18/2016, Eff. 3/19/2016, Oper. 4/18/2016)