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Knoxville police reminded people to take precautions to prevent car burglaries and practice responsible gun ownership.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knoxville had an average of 11 guns a month stolen from cars in 2024, according to the police department.
Knoxville police said at least 133 guns were reportedly stolen from cars in 2024. The department said that is one more than in 2023.
According to an analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigation data by the gun safety group Everytown released in May 2024, the rate of guns stolen from cars in the United States has tripled over the last decade. The report found nearly 112,000 guns were reported stolen in 2022 and more than half were taken from cars.
The report analyzed crime data from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System, which includes details about what was stolen and where it came from. Guns stolen from cars bucked car theft trends overall — the rate of other things stolen from cars has dropped 11% over the last 10 years, even as the rate of gun thefts from cars grew 200%, Everytown found in its analysis of FBI data.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has separately said that theft is a significant source of guns that end up in the hands of criminals. More than 1 million guns were reported stolen between 2017 and 2021, the agency found in a sweeping report on crime guns released last year.
In a Facebook post on the issue, Knoxville police reminded people to take precautions to prevent car burglaries and practice responsible gun ownership.