NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — While Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and lawmakers wrestle with a response to the Covenant School shooting, Tennessee faces another crisis that gets far less attention: the theft of guns from cars.
According to statistics from Everytown Research & Policy, two Tennessee cities — Memphis and Chattanooga — have the highest rate of gun thefts from vehicles in the country. Two other cities — Jackson and Nashville — round out the top 15.
Those stolen weapons, police say, are often used against innocent victims.
"It's kind of mind-numbing to me that we're not tackling this head on, and it's not a bigger part of the conversation," said state Rep. Caleb Hemmer, D-Nashville.
Among them was Kyle Yorlets, a Nashville musician who was gunned down in 2019.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates first met Kyle's parents in early 2020.
"Kyle was very friendly, very kind, very outgoing. Everybody loved him," recalled his mother, Deb Yorlets.
She remembered that Kyle had big dreams for a career in the music industry.
"He was a natural," Deb Yorlets said. "Performance was going to be a thing for him."
But those dreams were shattered by a bullet from a stolen gun.
A Metro police chaplain called Kyle's parents up in Pennsylvania with the news.
"She's said, 'Are you by yourself?' And I knew then it was bad. I begged her to tell me, but she wouldn't. She said, 'Go find someone,'" Deb Yorlets recalled.
Kyle's father, Larry Yorlets, was driving back up to their home at the time.
"It was dark out, and she had a flashlight," Larry Yorlets recounted. "I saw she was like staggering around, coming across the yard. I remember thinking to myself: if she doesn't watch what she's doing I'm going to end up running into her just pulling up the driveway."
Deb added, "I could barely walk or breathe. He knew there was something wrong. He thought he was going to hit me."
Larry Yorlets recalled the sense of disbelief.
"Of course, your initial reaction is are you sure it was him? Did you check his wallet to make sure the ID was right? That's the stuff I was asking."
Police charged five teens — ages 12 to 16 — with the murder.
They also seized two 9-millimeter handguns. One of them, our investigation discovered, was stolen from a car outside some upscale Brentwood-area apartments. The car's owner told police he left it unlocked. The other gun stolen with a car outside a North Nashville market. The driver left the engine running while she ran inside.
"How does a person live with themselves, like the lady that left her car running with the gun?" Deb Yorlets asked. "How does she live with herself knowing what happened with that gun? I couldn't."
Newly updated numbers from Metro police show the number of guns stolen from cars has skyrocketed from 576 in 2017 to more than 1,300 last year.
This whole problem stems from a 2014 law, pushed by the gun lobby, to allow guns in cars. The law required that those firearms had to be locked up and out of sight, but there was no penalty for those that chose to ignore that law.
Year after year, Republican lawmakers have refused to do anything about it.
Hemmer was determined to try again this session.
"Our bill would be a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by court-ordered firearms safety class," the Nashville Democrat explained.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates followed up: "It's not a fine or jail sentence?"
"We did that on purpose. We know it's a conservative state. We've got a hard enough time passing common-sense gun legislation here," Hemmer said.
Yet, when Hemmer's bill recently came up in committee, he decided not to proceed after House Republican Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison offered to work with him to pass it.
The pushback from the Tennessee Firearms Association accusing Faison of supporting "gun control" was immediate.
"This is a bipartisan solution. It's the bare minimum," Hemmer said.
Our question: "Do you think you can get it done this year?"
"I've been fighting like hell all year long to get it done, so I'm not giving up now," the lawmaker responded.
Back in 2020, gun lobbyist John Harris argued that such a law would unfairly penalize gun owners whose weapons are stolen.
"Do you want to make the victim a second victim?" the Tennessee Firearms Association official asked.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates noted: "Some people will hear you say that and say that's pretty callous."
"Well, it may be," Harris said, "but it's the world we live in. I mean, you know, Tennesseans love their guns."
But the Yorlets said Tennesseans should also love their children.
We asked Deb Yorlets: "What has been the hardest moment for you?"
"Just not having him to talk to, just that he's not here," she said. "It's still unbelievable. After all this time, it's like it just happened."
Larry Yorlets said "those lobbyists, if this would have been their family instead of mine, their attitude would change very quickly. Their comprehension of what the other side of it is would be considerably different."
Sadly, Deb Yorlets has lost her battle with cancer since that interview, so she never got a chance to see a change in Tennessee state law for which she had hoped.
Caleb Hemmer says he hopes that, as the governor and lawmakers are talking about the response to the Covenant shooting, they can also deliver some belated sense of comfort to the rest of Kyle's family.
Related:
He's fighting new gun laws in Tennessee, and he says kids protesting are 'props'
Tennessee's never-ending gun debate: mass shooting, debate, then nothing happens
SPECIAL SECTION: Revealed
Do you have information for our investigation?Email us: investigate@newschannel5.com