“When it comes to determining how to best keep college campuses safe, it would only make sense to listen to campus police and the Tennessee Association of Police Chiefs. And yet, not only did our legislators disregard their adamant opposition to this bill, so did our governor. According to campus police chiefs, not only will this new law make campuses less safe, it will also require them to scrap their FBI training protocol when it comes to responding to an active shooter situation. Additionally, numerous faculty members have indicated they will resign over this. But, in our state, the gun lobby is more influential than law enforcement and the wishes of the NRA trump the concerns of our public colleges and universities.”

Beth Joslin Roth, policy director of The Safe Tennessee Project