Tennessee reps irked by state’s failure on gun safe storage campaign

Tennessee lawmakers express frustration the state Department of Safety is failing to follow through with gun-safety ads for which the legislature approved funding. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)

Tennessee’s Department of Safety is failing to follow through on a $1.6 million campaign for safe gun storage in vehicles, despite a major increase in weapon thefts from cars and trucks, lawmakers say.

Lawmakers approved the funding in an August 2023 special session on public safety for a firearms public awareness drive that was supposed to target vehicle break-ins. Gov. Bill Lee called lawmakers into that special session but was unable to pass any consequential gun-related bills in response to the Covenant School shooting in which six people were killed, including three children.

Since then, the Department of Safety has produced a weapon safe-storage commercial for homes but nothing dealing with vehicles, where lawmakers say the problem is the worst.

The state’s public service spot shows a man overseeing his son using a shotgun to fire at aluminum cans. Meanwhile, in the house, the man’s daughter pulls a rifle from a closet and appears to be on the verge of firing it, before the video shows the rifle is equipped with a safety lock designed to keep children from loading it and pulling the trigger.

Democratic state Rep. Caleb Hemmer of Nashville supports that commercial but is “frustrated” with the state’s refusal to target safe gun storage in vehicles. Hemmer and Democratic Sen. Jeff Yarbro ran into opposition from Republicans when they sponsored a bill requiring, then encouraging, people to lock weapons in vehicles.

“We have this problem, and we put money to deal with it and they’re only dealing with 10% of the problem, not 90% of it,” Hemmer says.

He notes the department is not even “thinking about addressing it,” after public and private “prodding.”

Critics of Tennessee’s gun law argue that weapon thefts from vehicles increase dramatically after the Legislature passed the permit-less carry law five years ago. State law, based on the attorney general’s interpretation of a court decision, now allows people 18 and above to carry without a permit. Yet they are not allowed to take their weapons into many businesses and leave them in vehicles unsecured.

Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake circulated statistics immediately after the Covenant School shooting in 2023 showing vehicle thefts jumped to 1,378 in Nashville in 2022 from 848 in 2019 and to 2,740 in Memphis from 1,159 in the same time frame.

I’m very adamant that we need to inform the public that when you get out of your vehicle you have it safely stored if you can’t take it with you.

– Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis

The state’s two largest urban areas saw a downtick last year. Metro Nashville reported 984 weapons stolen from cars in 2023, while Shelby had 2,113, according to information from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Many weapons are stolen from vehicles by teens and wind up being used in violent crimes, such as the 9mm pistol juveniles pulled on a Belmont graduate and musician Kyle Yorlets when he was shot to death in February 2019.

Republican state Rep. Mark White of East Memphis, who carried the measure for a safe storage campaign in the 2023 special session, said Monday he had spoken with Hemmer and the Department of Safety and plans to keep pushing the message.

“I’m very adamant that we need to inform the public that when you get out of your vehicle you have it safely stored if you can’t take it with you,” White says.

White, whose efforts to pass safe gun storage laws failed several times, says the Department of Safety told him it was just starting to get “ramped up” on the safe gun storage campaign.

Safety Department spokesman Wes Moster did not respond to Tennessee Lookout questions about the public service spots and why they don’t deal with vehicles.

Instead, he said there has been “no delay” in the advertisements, which are being distributed statewide across radio, television and movie theaters. In addition, spots on streaming services, social media, newspapers and billboards will be sent out this summer.

“The department will strategically determine whether additional advertisements will be made,” Moster said in an email response to Lookout questions.

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