NPR: Many cities see an increase in firearms stolen from cars

In the United States, more and more stolen weapons are stolen, particularly in states where it is easier to carry guns on the road.

There are no reliable national figures, but an NPR survey of a sample of police services reveals a steady increase in the number of firearms stolen from vehicles.

In Atlanta, the number has increased from 439 in 2009 to 1,021 in 2018.

In Saint-Louis, it went from 200 to 597 during the same period.

Some of the biggest hikes in Tennessee have occurred in recent years. The number of weapons reported stolen in vehicles at the state level has almost doubled in one year. In 2016, 2,203 were reported; a year later, the number of reports rose to 4,064, according to figures reported to NPR by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

"Crime as a whole is not new, but the volume – the amount we are seeing – is new," said Lieutenant Blaine Whited of the Metropolitan Police Department in Nashville. "It's enough to shock you."

Whited leads the city's task force on juvenile crime and says it's often young people who steal their weapons.

"Kids know where they are, they understand:" We're checking enough doorknobs, we're going to have something, "says Whited.

Last year in Nashville, 659 firearms were reportedly stolen from vehicles, a 70% jump from 2016. Police say these weapons are used to commit crimes, such as the murder of 39, a local musician in February.

Whited thinks that people have become too "comfortable" with the weapons that they keep in their cars. About a month ago, a young delinquent from a neighboring county escaped from prison and reportedly found a gun in an unlocked van.

"There was a key, with a Springfield handgun loaded," Whited said. "He has now not only been able to get a car, but a loaded firearm."

Unexpected consequences

"It's crazy," says state representative, G. A. Hardaway, a Democrat who represents a part of Memphis. The number of reported stolen weapons in his city has climbed up from 585 in 2015 to 1,273 last year.

It goes back to a series of laws passed earlier this decade that made it easier for people to keep guns in their cars.

"It was agreed that the Tennesseans needed to protect themselves inside their cars," Hardaway said. He co-sponsored one of the bills, which removed the permit and training requirements for firearms kept in vehicles. But he says he did not realize that so many people would be so sloppy with their weapons.

"I did not think we would have so many stupid people with guns in their cars," Hardaway said. "These are the unexpected consequences that we have the obligation to correct and correct."

At the request of the Memphis Police Director, Hardaway has introduced a bill providing for criminal penalties for people who can not get their hands on firearms.

He says he tried to get support from the local gun lobby by amending the bill in order to use the word "secure" instead of "locked."

"We could not say," Lock your doors, "because the NRA has an aversion to everything that is written" lock "and" use a gun "in the same paragraph," says Hardaway.

The NRA would not comment on the legislation at NPR.

The bill remained stalled, in part because of the opposition of Republican state representative Micah Van Huss, chairman of the House subcommittee on the protection of the Constitution and determination of pain.

"I understand that there is a problem with the criminals who get into cars and steal firearms, but I do not want to make these criminals law-abiding citizens," he said. Van Huss.

Van Huss thinks that the state should go further in the deregulation of firearms.

"I want to remove laws that violate our constitutional rights, I want to get rid of them, I think it's unconstitutional to require a license," Van Huss said.

New Milestone in the Gun Rights Movement

This school of thought is often referred to as the "Constitutional Deferral" and is the last step in the gun rights movement. Since the 1990s, most states have facilitated obtaining a license to carry a firearm; now, politicians like Van Huss want to get rid of the license and the required security training.

Neighboring Missouri has adopted the full Constitutional Deferral as of 2017.

Since then, Kansas City and St. Louis have seen a clear increase in the number of stolen guns in cars.

"We had groups of individuals who really broke into cars looking for weapons," Capt said. Renee Kriesmann, District Commander, Downtown St. Louis, where flights were most frequent. She says flights are particularly concentrated in car parks around sporting events.

After the change of the law, "more people started to carry weapons," says Kriesmann. "And then they ended up in positions where they then had to leave [guns] in a car to go to some of these events. "

Some firearms trainers worry about the seemingly casually of many new gun owners.

"I think when we look at buying a firearm and that stewardship is not a problem, you may have a problem," said Clint Bruce, an alumnus of the Navy SEAL who had founded a shooting training company in Texas, TRG.

"In the army, the guard relies on stewardship." Not only did I issue this [weapon] for you, but you are responsible for that as long as you have it. "

Proponents of constitutional portering acknowledge that people can be careless with their weapons. Van Huss, for example, says he's encouraging gun owners to undergo safety training.

"I agree that citizens should receive training, but I do not think the government has the responsibility to infringe their rights to the second amendment, to tell them that they have to do it," Van Huss said. .

Last week, the Tennessee legislature took another step in this direction by voting for a reduction in training requirements for authorizations to carry concealed firearms. Instead of the current requirement of eight hours of in-person training and live fire, candidates would be allowed to watch an online course and take a test. Proponents of the bill, which is waiting for the governor's signature, say they want to give people a less burdensome option than the current in-person security training.

In response to the increasing number of weapons stolen from cars, the legislature has approved a new mandatory 30-day sentence for gun thieves.

Those who pay the price

Pastor Larry Rayford does not like the sound of that. He works with youth in a neighborhood of Nashville, north of the state capital, and often meets those who are affected by weapons stolen from cars.

"It's a really painful situation," Rayford said. "We have children, you know, dying, or killing people, catching huge murder cases now, because of those guns."

He does not excuse robberies, but he is baffled by the apparent indifference of people who make their weapons so easy to steal.

At the same time, he added, more and more people in this neighborhood want guns in their cars, as many other drivers are armed. Only a few weeks ago, he said, he watched one driver point a handgun at another.

"If there had not been people who sounded the horn, I sincerely think he would have shot with that weapon," he says. "He realized that people had seen him, and he rushed and sped quickly."

Armed driving

The news of armed crime in traffic is making more people buy weapons for their cars, said Paul Jividen of Royal Range USA, an arms shop and training center on the south side of Nashville .

"There have been car hijacks within two kilometers of here, so yes, the desire for safety is getting bigger," said Jividen.

It encourages people to buy locks or safes for firearms that they keep in their car and to undergo safety training.

"If you follow one of our classes, you will not be one of those people who breaks the basic rules of gun safety," he says.

But Jividen also believes that training should be voluntary. Although he wants people to be more common sense when it comes to guns in cars, he does not think it can be required by law.