ATF Says Stolen Guns Flooding Middle Tennessee Streets

SMYRNA, TN — Federal agents say 165 guns have been stolen from Middle Tennessee gun stores in the last six months and those illegal firearms are starting to show up on the streets.

Guns-n-More in Smyrna was robbed for the second time in less than a month Thursday. This time, a group of five thieves backed up a car, which had been reported stolen in an earlier carjacking, through the front of the Sam Ridley Parkway store and made out with 10 guns, plus ammunition and rifle parts. Twenty-four guns were stolen from the store during the August robbery.

The vehicle is a gray Audi A4 with an Ohio license plate of FTN-8532. The suspects are four men in masks and one woman, whose face was uncovered.

“We do believe that these individuals are involved in other burglaries and robberies that have happened in the Middle Tennessee area,” Smyrna Police Sgt. Bobby Gibson told WKRN.

Local agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said there has been a rise in gun store thefts nationwide and that weapons stolen in those robberies are starting to show up on the streets, connected to other crimes.

"We have seen a little more violent acts when it comes to stealing those firearms," ATF Special Agent Michael Knight told Fox 17. "So they're a little more brazen in terms of the actual crime that they're looking at."

Knight said the guns are often traded for drugs or cash.

Photo via Smyrna Police