Because the tradition battle round firearms has intensified, a subset of gun homeowners has taken to placing bumper stickers on their autos emblazoned with the message “Come and take them.” To some thieves, that’s much less of a defiant provocation than it’s an open invitation.

That’s as a result of during the last decade, parked autos, particularly people who have bumper stickers with pro-gun messages on them, have grow to be more and more focused by thieves. The truth is, in 2020, parked autos had been the biggest supply of stolen firearms in America.

In keeping with analysis from the gun management group, Everytown for Gun Security, 1 / 4 of all stolen weapons in America got here from a parked automobile a decade in the past, studies the New York Occasions. In 2022, greater than half of all stolen weapons got here from a parked automobile.

For instance, in Nashville, the variety of firearms taken from parked autos elevated practically tenfold during the last decade. In 2012, simply 152 weapons had been stolen from autos. In 2022, that determine had risen to 1,378.

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These stolen weapons can then be utilized in crimes, as occurred with a Glock 9mm pistol stolen from a Dodge Charger in Nashville in 2022. Lower than a 12 months later, the gun was linked to a few shootings that wounded at the very least 5 individuals.

It’s onerous to know precisely how large of an issue stolen weapons are throughout the nation, as a result of simply 15 states require homeowners to report them as stolen. Nonetheless, rising that quantity will not be the place lawmakers are beginning. Fearing a tradition battle, there’s bipartisan help for guidelines that will require homeowners to retailer their weapons in locked compartments once they park their autos.

In Tennessee, a pair of payments search to outlaw the observe of leaving a firearm in a automobile until it’s “locked inside the trunk, utility or glove field, or a locked container securely affixed,” with violators required to attend a gun security course.

However the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation (N.R.A.) and different advocates object to those measures. They argue that the legal guidelines goal victims of theft, and say that such measures would possibly discourage homeowners from reporting their weapons as stolen. Lawmakers try to work round these objections.

“We’re likening it to a dashing ticket,” stated Caleb Hemmer, a Tennessee state consultant. “We all know we’re in a conservative state, and we’re making an attempt to persuade individuals to be accountable gun homeowners.”

In the meantime, others reject the N.R.A.’s arguments altogether. Republican Tennessee Consultant John Gillespie, who co-sponsored Hemmer’s invoice, was annoyed by the objections.

“I’m greater than prepared to extend the penalties for individuals stealing a gun,” stated Gillespie. “However are we actually that burdened by asking somebody to correctly lock up their gun in a automobile so it will possibly’t be stolen?”

Whereas some states, akin to California, New York, and New Jersey have already got legal guidelines on the books mandating that firearms be locked in a safe compartment, they’re being resisted in different states. For instance, Virginia just lately tried and did not introduce such a measure.

In the meantime, cities making an attempt to implement their very own guidelines face difficulties when individuals are available in from out of city. Nonetheless, they’re making an attempt. In lots of, authorities are merely giving in-vehicle gun safes away to encourage their use, and curb this harmful development.