CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi Police Chief Mike Markle speaks out after a string of shootings across the city killed two and injured 11 in one weekend. He says several of these disturbances included individuals not legally old enough to own the weapon.
Markle and the Auto Theft Task Force are urging gun owners to secure their weapons to help put a stop to them getting in the wrong hands.
"So, I'll tell you just last week we had 13 guns stolen out of cars here in, here in the city, that's 13 guns that can end up in anybody's hands, juveniles' hands, bad guy's hands," he said.
"Overall for the year we had 263 to date, guns that were taken out of cars." Auto Theft Task Force Lt. Brian Hagar said.
He told 3NEWS, if you like it, lock it because thieves are out there waiting for you to slip up.
"Absolutely, I mean, where do shoppers go? They go to the mall," he said. "So where do these thieves go? They go to where they can get things readily available and quickly, guns. They know people keep them in cars, people get complacent. Some of these guns you can see when you look in the window, you can see the handle of the gun sticking up, so, it's definitely a place where bad guys are getting these, these guns in their hands."
Hagar said there is a right and a wrong way for those carrying legally to secure their weapons.
"Ultimately, we would like for nobody to leave their guns in the car," he said. "Take the gun home, put the gun up in a safe place. Don't leave it in your car. But, there are aftermarket safes out there on the market to where you can lock your gun in a vault per se and lock it underneath the seat to where it's more secure than just leaving it behind glass."
Markle also wants to clear up some misconceptions about how old you need to be to own a gun.
"21 [years old] to own a handgun," he said. "It's kind of a misconception, folks think 'I'm 18 I can have a gun.' You can have a rifle, you can have a long gun, but you have to be 21 years old to have a handgun."
CCPD also urges gun owners to keep track of their serial numbers so they can report and/or trace stolen or lost firearms.