More Tennesseans were fatally shot in 2017 than in any previous year on record. If an illness were killing our friends, family, and neighbors at such an alarming rate, we would not hesitate to label it a crisis. And that’s what gun violence is. It’s a public health crisis. We need to address it the same way we would any other public health crisis. To do that means understanding both the scope of the issue as well as the evidenced-based policies and programs that can address it.

Tennessee is:

11th in the nation for firearm mortality
7th for firearm homicide
4th for firearm mortality for ages 0-19
4th for firearm homicide for ages 0-19
12th for juvenile firearm suicides
5th for women murdered by men
8th for black homicide victimization

Safe Tennessee’s new report, Tennessee Gun Violence: An Issue of Public Health and Safety, reflects years of the state’s firearm injury and death data across a number of categories, including women murdered by men, youth gun violence, black homicide victimization, child access-related shootings, mass shootings, and firearm suicides. The report also includes detailed policy proposals, such as expanded background checks, extreme risk protection orders, strengthening firearm dispossession laws, MaKayala’s Law, and investing in intervention and prevention through funding for community groups and violence interrupters, and research into the many factors driving Tennessee gun violence.The report uses data from the Centers for Disease Control, The Tennessee Department of Health, the FBI, and The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.