Hmmm: Gun Thefts Rise, But Violent Crime Declines in Music City

First of all, Merry Christmas from all of us at Bearing Arms! Posting will be considerably lighter than normal today (in fact, I can’t promise there’ll be another post after this one), but we’ll be back in full swing tomorrow. 

Now onto the news. Yesterday I wrote about the historic decline in violent crime, especially homicide, that’s happened during President Donald Trump’s first year in office. Most U.S. cities have seen significant decreases in both fatal and non-fatal shootings, including Nashville, Tennessee. Interestingly, those declines are happening despite police reporting a substantial increase in the number of stolen firearms this year. 

In 2025, 996 guns were stolen from vehicles in Nashville, said the MNPD on Tuesday. This is up from 907 in 2024, which had seen a significant decrease, the lowest since 2019.

Metro police repeatedly encourages Nashvillians to lock their automobile doors, especially guns, which they say are routinely used in criminal activities.

Tennessee legislation failed in March of this year that would hold gun owners accountable for leaving their guns in vehicles. Gun owners would have faced a Class C misdemeanor offense of storing a firearm or firearm ammunition in a motor vehicle while the person is not in the motor vehicle.

I don’t think it’s a great idea to leave a gun in your car, but it’s unavoidable in some circumstances, like when you’re about to walk into a “gun-free zone.” Yes, you could always lock the gun in the trunk of your car (if your vehicle has a trunk, of course), but some gun owners may balk at doing something that conspicuous, which could draw attention from criminals who would be aware that the gun owner is unarmed. 

Not every bad idea should be a criminal offense, and even those who leave a firearm in their vehicle while it’s parked in their driveway overnight shouldn’t face jail time or fines if that gun gets stolen. The real crime is committed by those breaking into vehicles and homes and grabbing the guns inside, and the way to combat that is to make more arrests and conclude fewer criminal cases with plea deals that let defendants off the hook. 

From a crime-fighting perspective, the increase in gun thefts from vehicles doesn’t appear to be impacting Nashville’s public safety. In the first nine months of 2025, murders in Nashville dropped 30% while robberies were down 27%; declines even larger than the national average. 

We know that more guns doesn’t equate to more crime, but Nashville suggests something else; that more guns in the hands of criminals doesn’t automatically lead to more violent crime. 

That doesn’t mean that anyone should be cheering the fact that, on average, more than two guns were stolen from vehicles in Nashville every day this year. Those numbers aren’t great, and if we don’t police themselves there are plenty of anti-gun politicians across the country who’ll cite statistics in their own cities and states in support of more restrictions on lawful gun owners. 

At the very least, though, Nashville is a reminder that there are many causes of violent crime, and it can be quite complex to suss out why crime is trending up or down. The gun control lobby’s simplistic take that violent crime must be addressed by reducing the number of legal gun owners is demonstrably false. Nashville’s crime stats show that, even as criminals manage to get their hands on more guns by breaking the law, it is possible to see historic reductions in homicides and other violent offenses. 

Editor’s Note: Christmas is finally here, and we’re celebrating at Bearing Arms! 

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