Coming up.

We're kind of at a point now where prosecutors, advocates, police are saying, what else can we do?

How else can we prevent these guns from getting into the hands of kids and into potential criminals?

For Vault Studios, I'm Reid Redmond.

You're listening to The Daily Crime.

Thieves, often preying on negligent gun owners, stole more than a thousand guns from cars in Charlotte last year alone, a 36% increase from 2020.

The state of North Carolina has a law requiring safe storage of guns.

But it's a law that's so narrow.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Police have only charged 12 people with the crime since 2016.

And the sentence for it ranges from no jail time to four months behind bars. Police say the current law prevents them from filing criminal charges in most cases.

Really, we want people to take their guns out of their cars.

Everyone thinks that they're not going to be a victim.

The current law as it stands, is it strong enough?

Right now, I'm not sure that class one misdemeanor is doing a trick.

It really doesn't require safe storage.

It just imposes liability under very

specific circumstances. North Carolina's law has a long way to go.

Last year, more than 1,000 guns were stolen from cars in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Nate Morabito, investigative reporter with WCNC in Charlotte.

You've been looking into gun laws in North Carolina, specifically laws that would require

gun owners to secure their guns properly.

Let's start with this.

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