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Report: Tennessee among highest rates of road rage shootings in US

Paige PflegerWPLN News
Hundreds of guns are stolen from cars in Nashville each year.
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Road rage shootings are on the rise in the United States, and over the last decade Tennessee recorded one of the highest rates of armed road rage incidents in the nation. That’s according to a new analysis of Gun Violence Archive data by The Trace, a news outlet that focuses on firearms.

More: How Tennessee became one of the most gun-friendly states before the Covenant School shooting

In 2013, Tennessee’s legislature passed a law often referred to as “guns in trunks” that allowed gun owners to treat a car like an extension of their home when it comes to carrying. It was heavily opposed by law enforcement, who feared the law would lead to an increase in crime.

Since the law’s passage, Tennessee has seen some of the highest numbers of guns stolen from cars in the nation, according to the FBI, and an increase in gun homicides during road rage incidents. Many of these homicides go unsolved.

This Is Nashville: Keeping cool on the road in Middle Tennessee

According to The Trace, road rage shootings across the country rose more than 400% from 2014 to 2023, with an average of one person shot each day.

Paige Pfleger, Criminal Justice Reporter

Paige Pfleger covers criminal justice for WPLN News. She has investigated guns and juvenile justice as a fellow with ProPublica's Local Reporting Network, and her investigation into domestic violence and firearms dispossession won a regional Edward R. Murrow award and was a finalist for an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and a Livingston Award. She previously covered criminal justice and addiction in Ohio and was named the state's reporter of the year by the Associated Press. Her work has appeared nationally on NPR, The Washington Post, Marketplace, and PRI's The World, and she has worked in the newsrooms of The Tennessean, Michigan Radio, WHYY, Vox and NPR headquarters in DC.

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