NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nearly 30,000 firearms have been stolen from motor vehicles in Tennessee in the decade since Republican lawmakers voted to allow gun owners to keep their weapons in their cars and trucks without any penalty for those who leave them unsecured, a NewsChannel 5 analysis has discovered.
In 2022 alone, the most recent year for which statewide numbers are available, data from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shows that more than 5,000 guns were stolen from motor vehicles, in many cases putting them into the hands of dangerous individuals who are not legally entitled to possess firearms and are likely to commit other crimes.
Some of those stolen weapons have since been used to kill innocent Tennesseans, but Tennessee Republicans have so far shown little interest in revisiting those laws or in cracking down on gun owners who make their firearms easy targets.
"Listen, freedom comes with some dangers. That's one of the things that made our country great is that we put the power in people's hands," said Rep. Jeremy Faison, an East Tennessee Republican who sponsored the 2013 legislation.
Last year's mass murder at Nashville's Covenant School — which left three 9-year-old students and three staff members dead — has brought renewed focus on the 10-year effort by Tennessee Republicans to allow more people to carry firearms with fewer restrictions.
Along the way, gun rights advocates have insisted that the relaxation of the state's gun laws was good for public safety.
"This absolutely makes us a safer state, this bill as a whole," said Rep. William Lamberth, a Portland Republican, as he argued for passage of a bill that allows Tennesseans to carry firearms without a permit and without going through any sort of training.
Others claimed that it was God's will.
"It is our right, given by God, in this country to keep and bear arms," said Rep. Chris Todd, a Jackson Republican, in that same debate.
And the conflict has become even more pronounced in the months since the Covenant School shooting.
Last November, a man showed up outside a private school in Memphis carrying what appeared to be an assault rifle, forcing the school into lockdown as a precaution. But police told parents that, under Tennessee law, the man was doing nothing illegal as long as he did not start shooting or threatening to shoot.
Parent Kyle Taylor posted an incredulous video to Instagram.
"So my kids are not in danger because he hasn't fired the weapon? I don't get it," Taylor said. "How is this normal? Like, why is it normal?"
The rollback of Tennessee's gun laws began in 2013 with legislation to allow gun owners to keep their weapons in their cars and trucks.
At the time, it was dubbed the "guns in trunks" bill.
That law specified that the firearm needed to be "kept from ordinary observation and locked within the trunk, glove box, or interior of the person's motor vehicle or a container securely affixed to the motor vehicle if the person is not in the motor vehicle."
But there was no penalty for violating that provision.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked the Republican sponsor, Jeremy Faison, "In hindsight, was that a good bill?"
"Oh, absolutely," answered Faison, who now serves as chair of the House Republican Caucus.
"My district is incredibly pro-Second Amendment, pro-gun, don't touch my guns. Everywhere I go, that's what I hear. That's what I was asked to do. That's what I did."
But when NewsChannel 5 Investigates crunched the TBI data, we discovered that, in 2013, the year the law was first passed, there were just 46 guns reported stolen from motor vehicles for the entire state of Tennessee.
Three years later, that number had shot up to more than 2,000 reported cases. The next year, more than 4,000.
By 2022, there were almost 5,400 guns reported stolen from cars and trucks statewide.
That's 29,167 firearms stolen from motor vehicles since Faison's bill became law.
"That's not directly a representation of what we have done," the House Republican leader insisted, claiming it was more of a reflection of crime rates.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates pressed, "But this was overnight. I mean, it went from 46 firearms stolen from cars in 2013 to, in 2016, it was more than 2,000. The next year, it was more than 4,000. How can you say that had nothing to do with your legislation?"
"I could also tell you that there are crimes stopped," Faison replied. "You don't have the statistics of people who have actually stopped violent crimes because they had the ability to protect themselves."
But NewsChannel 5 dug up the statistics showing when guns have been used to commit crimes during the time that Republicans said they were making us safer.
Since 2013, according to TBI data, the number of crimes against persons involving firearms actually shot up from just under 10,000 to more than 23,000 in 2021, then just under 22,000 the next year.
Aggravated assaults with guns rose from 8,600 to more than 21,000 in that same time period.
And murders shot up from 223 in 2013 to more than 600 in 2021. The next year, there were 504 murders statewide involving firearms.
"I think guns-in-trunks was a singularly terrible idea because it's led to more gun crime which people care about," said Dr. Jonathan Metzl, a Vanderbilt professor who has written two books exploring issues surrounding gun violence.
His latest, "What We've Become," focuses on the mass shooting at a Nashville Waffle House.
Metzl said the data is clear that the unregulated relaxation of gun laws in states like Tennessee has come at a price.
"Unregulated without any kind of oversight or training or process or permission — again and again and again — it leads quite clearly to more gun injury and death. For me, that really is a slam-dunk argument."
Among the many examples, Nashville musician Kyle Yorlets was gunned down in 2019 by a group of young teenagers who stole a handgun from a Brentwood-area apartment complex from an unlocked car.
And the Tennessee Department of Health's 2023 child fatality annual report concludes that firearm deaths are now "the leading external cause of death among Tennessee children," more than car accidents.
The most recent data shows that there were 29 Tennessee children killed by firearms in 2014, a number that had more than doubled by 2021. Black males, ages 15 to 17, are the most likely victims of firearm-related homicides, the report says. White males, ages 15 to 17, are most likely to use firearms to commit suicide.
Tennessee's rate of firearm death for children was 5.5 deaths per 100,000, far above the national average of 3.5, the report shows.
"Having more guns around leads to more shootings, and they lead to the kind of shootings that are never a part of that safety conversation because they are partner violence and accidental shootings and gun suicides — and those far outweigh homicides, which is I think what people are talking about when they say safety," Dr. Metzl said.
Interestingly, Faison argued that this isn't really a problem for his district, that it's mainly Memphis and Nashville, not in East Tennessee.
It turns out that the number of firearms stolen from motor vehicles there has jumped from just 17 the year he passed his bill to more than 1,000 every year.
And the number of crimes against persons in East Tennessee involving firearms has almost doubled.
In the case of guns left unsecured in someone's car, Faison said local media have a responsibility.
"I would love it if all the news people like yourself got on board and were doing PSAs saying, 'Listen keep your guns locked up,'"
As to his personal responsibility, the GOP lawmaker said he doesn't think it's his job to make it a crime for gun owners who make it easy for their guns to be stolen.
"If you do, who's going to report that anymore?" Faison argued.
We asked if lawmakers could not make it a crime to fail to report a stolen gun.
"How do we know that [a firearm] was ever stolen? 'I didn't know it was stolen.' You're criminalizing a person who just got criminalized."
In 2021, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a new law to make it a felony to steal a firearm, but prosecutors said that law is difficult to enforce since stolen weapons are often passed from one person to another.
During last summer's special session on public safety, Faison actually passed a bill out of committee to provide incentives for gun owners to do the right thing, saying they could not be held liable in a lawsuit for use of a stolen gun if it was properly secured.
Now, he says he doesn't think he has the votes — so he won't even try.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "What does it say about our politics though that a simple plan to provide some incentive to be responsible is dead in the water?"
Faison answered, "I think it's telling that Tennesseans as a whole is like, 'We've got this. I don't need the government in every area of my life.' I think that's what it's telling."
Watch recent Covenant stories below:
SPECIAL SECTION: Revealed
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