Memphis Allies, an initiative launched by Youth Villages, has decided to tackle youth crime and violence with a collaboration and accountability-centered approach.
Support with Intention to Create Hope (SWITCH) is a service currently offered in Orange Mound, Hickory Hill, South Memphis, Raleigh and Frayser. It aims to reduce gun violence and homicides, while also helping participants “reach their full potential,”
Originally started in the summer of 2022, SWITCH has served 512 people in fiscal year (FY) 2023-24. According to Youth Allies, the program brings community partners and other resources into these communities to stop cycles of gun violence and poverty.
Memphis Allies’ 2024 Progress Report said 398 people were killed in the city of Memphis last year, including 36 children. Officials said these statistics exemplify a “cycle of destruction” they hope to stop.
“The reality is that 99 percent of our SWITCH program participants have some affiliation with a gang, clique, or crew,” the report said. “Many of our participants either have a previous gun-related charge and/or have been shot or shot at.”
Besides being affiliated with a gang and directly involved in gun violence, people who have had a friend or family member shot/shot at, a history of criminal justice involvement, are unemployed, and have not completed school face these challenges at a higher rate.
Officials went on to say that 87 percent of people in the SWITCH program have not been involved in gun violence since their involvement.
SWITCH relies on “timely intervention” for its effectiveness, the report says. The 12-18 month long service puts those most susceptible to gun violence — both the victim and the perpetrator — in individual and group sessions. Participants are also engaged in family involvement, employment training,educational support and more to prepare them for success.
“SWITCH Youth is community-based, with life coaches and specialists meeting with participants face-to-face many times a week and staying in touch by phone and text,” the report says. “As participants progress through stages, they work on practical matters such as education and employment and on ways to overcome trauma, modify behavior and make better decisions in the moment.”
The organization uses a four-stage process to help participants, which includes engagement and alignment, self management, relationships and community connection, and vocational and educational connection.
Memphis Allies said involvement in the program is 24-7 work, with outreach specialists, life coaches, case managers, and clinical therapists working around the clock to help participants.
“Many of these adult SWITCH participants already have been incarcerated, sometimes on gun-related charges,” the organization added. “For some, this program represents [the] last chance at making transformative change.”
Renardo Baker, founder of “I Shall Not Die but Live,” is a partner for Memphis Allies and provides SWITCH outreach in Orange Mound. Baker said he “destroyed his community” by being a drug dealer, but has been a positive influence on his community for the past few decades by creating job opportunities for those at risk through his lawn business.
Twins Brandon and Bryan Mathis started the nonprofit TWINS which stands for “together we can impact neighborhoods and nations.” The brothers used their experiences from joining a gang at age 10 to not only implement SWITCH in Frayser, but they also provide life coaching and case management in Hickory Hill through their organization.
“[The partnership] gives us the freedom to do what has been successful and have the resources of Memphis Allies, including data,” Bryan said.
Memphis Allies has a number of partners in their network including The Braid Foundation, City of Memphis, Grind City Cares, Guns Down Orange Mound, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Young Man University and more.
Officials said that in the future they hope to help four times the number of people they served for FY 2023-24.
Seventy-nine firearms were surrendered and dismantled at Memphis’ first-ever Guns to Gardens safe surrender event last month.
Guns to Gardens, hosted by Evergreen Presbyterian Church, took unwanted guns in a drive-through event and dismantled them with chop saws. The gun parts will be given to artisans at the Metal Museum to make garden tools and art. The church called the event “a form of direct action to intervene in record levels of gun violence.”
Participants were offered Kroger gift cards for their guns in the 24-hous event. In all, 48 vehicles drove through and $6,350 in gift cards were given out. Thirty-five volunteers from 12 organizations participated.
Here’s what was surrendered:
● 79 firearms surrendered and dismantled
● 48 single-shot rifles/shotguns
● 30 handguns
● 1 assault-style weapon
“With this being our first Guns to Gardens event in Memphis, we honestly weren’t exactly sure what to expect in terms of participation,” said Reverend Patrick Harley, pastor of Evergreen. “To say that we were overwhelmed by the response is truly an understatement.
“Cars were lined up down the street, with some folks waiting patiently for nearly two hours. We started out with two chop saws and added a third to help handle the incredible number of guns that were being surrendered.
“And people shared such touching stories about why they wanted to surrender these guns. We are so grateful to those who participated and to the volunteers and ally organizations who helped make this event happen. This clearly showed there is a strong desire among Memphians for this type of solution to help reduce gun violence in our city, so our hope is that we can host similar events in the future.”
The Metal Museum will display the new tools and art made from Guns to Gardens in a special event on March 23rd from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Mass shootings have killed 3,000 people since 2006. (Photo: Joe Sohm | Dreamstime.com)
How many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows That too many people have died? — Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind”
It’s been six years since the Valentine’s Day massacre of 14 students and three teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and gun violence remains as virulent a disease as ever, with regular new outbreaks in states across the country.
In 2023, there were twice as many mass shootings as there were days in the year. According to the Gun Violence Archive, in just the first six weeks of 2024 there were 42 mass shootings in which 74 people were murdered, and another 126 were injured. Those statistics, as of February 11th, almost certainly will have gone up by the time you read this. (The archive defines a mass shooting as when four or more people are shot.)
In September, President Biden established the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to help reduce the nation’s epidemic of gun violence. Nevertheless, the killings continue. “After every mass shooting, we hear a simple message,” the president said. ‘Do something! Do something!’’’
Don’t count on Congress to do anything anytime soon.
Despite the National Rifle Association’s fall from grace — and its former long-serving CEO, Wayne LaPierre, on trial on for corruption charges — support for gun ownership remains strong. Indicted former President Donald Trump said this month that if elected, he would undo every executive action President Biden enacted.
Describing himself as “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House,” Trump promised that citizens’ “Second Amendment [rights] will always be safe with me as your president.”
Mass shootings have killed 3,000 people since 2006, according to an ongoing survey conducted by USA Today and the Associated Press, in collaboration with Northeastern University. Still, the debate about the ongoing gun violence emergency waxes and wanes, flaring after the latest shooting, “dying” down as the last candle at memorials to the murdered flickers and goes dark.
Also obscured in this urgent national conversation is an aspect that should be in the spotlight: the gender of the shooter. When will both the media and political leaders start making that undeniable fact central to the debate? The shooters are nearly always men and are usually white.
While the mental health of the shooters sometimes does play a role in their murderous acts, it’s a cop-out to claim that’s the primary trigger for their aberrant behavior. Better to look at how boys and young men are socialized, too many of whom are taught to believe that admitting feeling vulnerable, lonely, scared, and sad makes them less of a man. Think back to middle school and high school and you’ll undoubtedly be able to recall at least one alienated loner, often bullied, with few resources to assist him.
For years, I have been calling for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to be authorized by Congress to conduct a study of how we raise boys, beginning in preschool. Hopefully in 2025 there will be a Congress willing to consider the proposal.
Like many debates about social conditions in the U.S., too many men remain silent, rarely weighing in, whether the issue is mass shootings, women’s reproductive rights, or the climate emergency. What if, in this critically important election year, men organized themselves as men to speak out?
The 25th anniversary of the Columbine High School mass shooting is on April 20th. Imagine what it would mean if men organized a Million Men’s March Against Gun Violence! That could be just the beginning.
Just as Taylor Swift is influencing young women with support for progressive causes, imagine if her partner, Super Bowl-winning tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, begins speaking out about gun violence, reproductive rights, the climate crisis, and the presidential election. The potential impact he could have on men cannot be overstated.
The MAGA movement has not shied away from expressing its fear of Swift’s cultural power in this volatile political moment. If Kelce joins her, more men may begin to move from the cultural sidelines into the political endzone.
Rob Okun (rob@voicemalemagazine.org) syndicated by PeaceVoice, is editor emeritus of Voice Male magazine, chronicling the antisexist men’s movement for more than 30 years.
New federal Medicaid dollars may help Tennessee ease gun violence with a “proactive approach” sponsored by two state Democrats who say inaction by Republicans has been “shameful” and that the party is “scared of the [National Rifle Association].”
State Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) and Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) filed legislation that could flow Medicaid dollars here for community violence intervention programs proposed by Preisdent Joe Biden in 2021.
So far, seven states have received the funds, which require a match by states. The money is used to bolster existing programs that hope to stop gun violence well before someone picks up a firearm.
“For example, violence interruption programs deploy trusted messengers to work directly with individuals most likely to commit gun violence, intervene in conflicts, and connect people to social and economic services to reduce the likelihood of gun violence as an answer,” reads a statement from the White House. “Hospital-based violence interventions engage people who have been shot while they are still in the hospital, connecting them to services to decrease the likelihood that they commit gun violence or are victimized in the future. Programs like these have reduced homicides by as much as 60 percent in areas where they are implemented.”
The bill from Lamar and Jones would authorize Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to request the federal funding and the state matching funds. Then, TennCare officials would be responsible for identifying existing programs or creating new ones to use the funds.
“This legislation represents an opportunity for us to try a more holistic approach to reducing gun violence — an approach that recognizes the effect issues, such as poverty, education and mental health, have on crime,” Jones said. “It is a vital step in expanding the funding and resources necessary to protect our communities.”
Both Lamar and Jones ripped Republicans for inaction on gun violence in Tennessee, pointing to few laws of substance passed on the issue in the wake of the Covenant School shooting last year.
Since Republicans ended the legislative session last April, there have been 1,096 shootings — more than three per day — in Tennessee said Lamar, quoting facts from Tennessee Under the Gun, a data project from the Tennessee Senate Democrats. Since then, there have been 11 mass shootings where four or more people were shot, not including the shooter. Since the last sessions ended, 417 adults and 47 children were killed by gun violence in Tennessee.
So far this year, there have been 114 shootings in Tennessee and one mass shooting, that of Courdarion Craft who killed one person and injured two others in a weekend crime spree here this past weekend.
However, Lamar said data hasn’t changed the minds of Republicans who, ultimately, have the power to change gun violence in Tennessee.
“There is nothing anybody can say to me that [can prove] Republicans have done what they’re supposed to do for the good of people,” Lamar said. “They are too scared of the NRA and gun lobbyists than they are of babies dying.”
“There is not another piece of data we can produce for them to change their minds. They actually know what the problem is. They’re making a conscious and deliberate decision not to do anything.”
Meanwhile, state Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) has introduced several bills to tamp gun violence in Tennessee. One bill would ban the manufacture of semi-automatic rifles in Tennessee. He also would ban the manufacture, transfer, or sale of magazine clips that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. He also wants to require anyone who has lost a gun to report the loss to state officials within 24 hours.
Gov. Bill Lee delivers his State of the State address Monday evening. Credit: State of Tennessee
Gov. Bill Lee renewed his call for private school vouchers for any student across Tennessee on Monday, and he also set aside $144 million in his proposed state budget to pay for the new program for up to 20,000 students in its first year.
For traditional public schools, the Republican governor asked the legislature to raise the annual base pay for teachers from $42,000 to $44,500, in keeping with his pledge last year to get the profession’s minimum salary to $50,000 by the 2027-28 school year. (Raising the base pay has a domino effect and increases the pay of more experienced teachers, too.)
Lee also wants to invest $200 million to grow state parks and natural areas while simultaneously cutting corporate taxes amid a downturn in state revenues. But he maintained that Tennessee has “a very strong economy” to pay for all the changes.
The governor outlined his list of wants Monday evening during his 2024 address before the General Assembly, which will take up Lee’s voucher proposal and the budget in the months ahead.
He opened his remarks by calling Tennessee a “model for economic prosperity” and reminding lawmakers that state revenues are still 40 percent higher than three years ago.
However, after years of being flush with cash, the state faces a $610 million budget shortfall this year, and many lawmakers are leery of approving a universal school voucher program that Lee wants to be available to any K-12 student in 2025-26. Currently, Tennessee offers vouchers to about 3,000 low-income families in three urban counties, but his Education Freedom Scholarship Act would open them up to families in all 95 counties, eventually with no family income restrictions.
“2024 is the year to make school choice a reality for every Tennessee family,” he said, drawing a standing ovation from many legislators — but not everyone in the GOP-controlled legislature — as well as frequent jeers from some spectators in the gallery.
“There are thousands of parents in this state who know their student would thrive in a different setting, but the financial barrier is simply too high,” Lee continued. “It’s time that we change that. It’s time that parents get to decide — and not the government — where their child goes to school and what they learn.”
Lee, a Williamson County businessman who graduated from public schools in Franklin, near Nashville, touted more than $1.8 billion in new investments in public education since he became governor in 2019.
“We can give parents choice and support public schools at the same time,” he said. “You’ll hear me say that over and over again. These two ideas are not in conflict.”
The governor also released his $52.6 billion state government spending plan to begin July 1. The total was down from Tennessee’s $62.5 billion budget for the current fiscal year because of flattening revenues and expiring federal funds appropriated during the pandemic.
He proposed $8 million to hire 114 more school-based behavioral health specialists amid record reports of students experiencing stress, depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic.
Other recurring funding recommendations include $30 million to pay for summer learning programs; $3.2 million to expand access to advanced placement courses for high school students; and $2.5 million to pay for a universal reading screener as part of the state’s literacy initiative, all to offset federal funding that is drying up.
Lee is asking for $15 million in one time funding to help charter schools with facility costs.
The governor also announced that his administration will bring the legislature a bill designed to help parents oversee their child’s social media activity.
“It will require social media companies to get parental consent for minors to create their own accounts in Tennessee,” Lee said.
Such legislation would widen the state’s push against social media giants.
Last fall, Tennessee joined a coalition of states suing Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which is accused of violating consumer protection laws and deceptively marketing its platforms to adolescents to the detriment of their mental health.
And some Tennessee school districts have joined a growing list of school systems nationwide that are suing major social media companies like TikTok and YouTube over a crisis in student mental health.
But in the wake of last year’s shooting at a private Nashville school — where three children, three staff members, and the shooter died — the governor offered no new initiatives aimed at improving school safety or decreasing gun violence, other than funding to hire 60 more state troopers.
Last year, after the March 27 tragedy, the legislature approved $140 million in grants to place an armed law enforcement officer in every Tennessee public school. But the legislature rebuffed the governor’s call for a law to help keep guns out of the hands of people deemed at risk of hurting themselves or others.
Remarks about Lee’s universal voucher plan, announced in November, drew quick responses from the leaders of the state’s two largest teacher organizations.
“The concept of universal vouchers would be costly to the state, and we urge the Tennessee General Assembly to move slowly,” said JC Bowman, executive director of the Professional Educators of Tennessee.
“In particular, we have concerns over the lack of income-eligibility requirements and accountability,” he continued. “Our state must avoid any program viewed as a tax subsidy for existing private school families or a tax bailout for struggling private schools.”
Tanya T. Coats, president of the Tennessee Education Association, said Lee’s plan shows that vouchers have never been about helping economically disadvantaged families, as the governor first characterized it in 2019.
“The goal has always been to privatize public education and use public dollars to fund private school education, which goes against our Tennessee values,” Coats said.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
Five years after a bruising legislative battle opened the door to private school vouchers in parts of Tennessee, lawmakers are preparing to take up a controversial bill to create a similar program statewide.
Gov. Bill Lee’s universal voucher proposal, which eventually would make all K-12 students eligible to use public funding to attend a private or home school, is expected to dominate debate after the 113th General Assembly reconvenes on Tuesday.
But other issues affecting students and educators are sure to emerge in a state where education reform has been front and center since 2010, when Tennessee won $500 million in the federal Race to the Top competition to jumpstart changes.
With the GOP supermajority setting the agenda again this year, here’s a look at some big issues to watch as the opening gavel falls.
School vouchers: Lee’s expansion plan renews long-running debate
In November, the governor said he’ll introduce a new Education Freedom Scholarship Act to offer $7,075 in taxpayer money for each of up to 20,000 students statewide next school year to attend a private or home school, with eligibility restrictions for half of them. In 2025, eligibility would open up to all students, regardless of their family’s income.
The proposal would mark a massive expansion of Tennessee’s voucher program, which is now limited to three urban counties and still under-enrolled. But more than a month after Lee’s announcement, few details have been released.
“I have yet to understand where the financing is coming from,” said Sen. Page Walley, a Republican whose district includes eight rural counties in West Tennessee.
“If we jump to statewide vouchers, I don’t see how we fund it without robbing Peter to pay Paul,” he added.
Other big questions:
Would students accepting the new voucher scholarships have to take the same state tests as public school students in order to measure outcomes?
Would private schools accepting vouchers have to be state-approved or accredited, and would their teachers have to be licensed as public school educators are?
Would the state place stipulations on tuition costs at participating private schools, so they don’t raise their rates as many did in Arizona after the rollout of a universal voucher program?
Speaking with reporters last week, Lee promised accountability measures but declined to give specifics. He expects Republican leaders to file the bill on his behalf in the next few weeks, after his administration gets more feedback from lawmakers and stakeholders.
“Getting that input’s important for us to finalize the language that we think is the most agreeable to the most folks,” he said.
Rep. John Ray Clemmons of Nashville, who chairs the House Democratic caucus, called that approach “backwards.”
“They’re trying to craft something to get enough votes, instead of looking at the data and research on whether vouchers are good public policy,” Clemmons said.
Meanwhile, the pro-voucher Beacon Center released a poll last week finding broad support from Tennesseans for expanding such programs statewide. However, the group did not use the word “voucher,” which tends to poll worse, in its question to Tennesseans.
School safety: Renewed discussion, but no gun laws (it’s an election year)
Tennesseans were unnerved when an armed intruder shot and killed three children and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville on March 27, in the middle of last year’s legislative session. And the growing impact of gun violence on kids across the state is undeniable.
But Republican lawmakers’ response last year was to further harden schools rather than entertain any proposals to restrict gun access — not even for people who are deemed at risk of hurting themselves or others, as the Nashville shooter had been.
Some of them have organized news conferences and rallies at the Capitol this week for students, educators, and others to voice their concerns. Meanwhile, a group of parents from The Covenant School in Nashville, where the tragedy took place, say they’ll continue to advocate for changes to “ensure responsible firearm ownership, safe schools, and accessible adequate mental health care for all individuals across Tennessee.”
They include several measures to let certain citizens or school employees carry handguns in schools, and a bill to require all public and private schools to create alarm policies that differentiate emergencies for fire, weather, or an active shooter.
A new bill, from Republican Sen. Mark Pody of Lebanon and Rep. Susan Lynn of Mount Juliet, would let schools purchase lanyards equipped with emergency alert buttons for school staff to wear around their necks.
But don’t expect the legislature to look seriously at bills to restrict gun access in an election year, according to several key Republicans.
“I do not believe there’s an appetite or pathway to success for any legislation that might be introduced that is going to infringe on constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, of Franklin.
With the latest State of the Child report ranking Tennessee near the bottom nationally for access to mental health resources, Johnson sees more room for discussion on that topic.
“I think a big conversation in the coming session will be how we strengthen our mental health safety net,” Johnson said, “as well as general access to mental health treatment in Tennessee.”
Third-grade reading law: Lawmakers may revisit retention provision — again
Now under the same law, the state may have to retain thousands of fourth graders who test poorly this spring.
“I think we have to look into it,” said Rep. Mark White of Memphis, who chairs a House education committee. “We’ve probably got a lot of fourth graders who have already done summer school and tutoring but still won’t pass that test. It’s never a bad thing to have off-ramps and waivers.”
He added: “I want us to continue looking closer at Kindergarten, first, and second grades so we’re not waiting until the third and fourth grades to address these challenges.”
But Sen. Jon Lundberg, who chairs his chamber’s education panel, is less inclined to make more changes in the 2021 law.
“We’ve set the standard for proficiency and for showing adequate growth, and I don’t want to move those,” he said.
Federal education funding: Talk about rejecting it looks like just talk, for now
House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican from Crossville, surprised many in his own party last year when he floated the idea of Tennessee rejecting more than a billion dollars in federal funding for students, which he said could be offset with state tax revenues.
Legislative leaders polled by Chalkbeat last week said they haven’t heard of any legislation coming out of the hearings.
“It doesn’t hurt to know where our funding is coming from and how it’s being spent,” said White, the House’s education leader, said of the task force’s discussions, “but I don’t see that conversation going anywhere in the short term.”
Teacher shortages: Vacancies could lead to creative thinking
With Sexton declaring that Tennessee has enough state revenues to cover more than $1 billion in federal funding, plenty of public school advocates asked why the state wouldn’t use that excess instead to accelerate the governor’s plan to raise the minimum salary for teachers to $50,000 by 2027. (This year, the base is $42,000.)
Districts struggled to fill nearly 4,000 vacancies statewide last school year, especially in the middle grades, English as a second language, world languages, and special education, according to one report. And shortages of school bus drivers are a nationwide problem.
Lee told reporters that, while state revenues have flattened in recent months, Tennessee’s economy remains strong.
“We should probably look at our investments in public school funding and investments in teacher pay every year,” he said when asked about the prospect of accelerating pay increases.
Currently, the state covers less than half of health insurance premiums for its teachers, while state employees get 100 percent of their premiums covered. Moving teachers to the state employee plan could be a boost to both teachers and the local districts that employ them.
Professional Educators of Tennessee (PET) has also called on the legislature to develop policies to address child care access and affordability for teachers, more than 80 percent of whom are female.
“If you want to keep good teachers,” said PET executive director JC Bowman, “ease their burdens so they can focus on their work in school to educate and nurture our future generation.”
To follow this year’s legislative business, visit the General Assembly’s website for calendars, committees, legislation, and livestreams.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Gun violence is still top of mind for a number of organizations as lawmakers from across the state convene in Nashville Tuesday for the next regular session of the Tennessee General Assembly.
In March, a shooter killed three children and three adults at Nashville’s Covenant School. Among the victims was a friend of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. Thousands began to show up at the Tennessee State Capitol Building to demand action gun violence from lawmakers.
Lee later proposed a series of laws to keep guns out of the hands of those who could be a threat to themselves or others. None of his Republican colleagues picked up the bills. Instead, they quickly passed the state budget and fled back to their home districts.
However, Lee brought them all back to Nashville in August for a special session. The meeting was to yield some sort of meaningful regulations to curb gun violence here. None came, really. Though one bill did cut the tax for gun locks and safes. Republicans, it seemed, had sidestepped the issue with no political damage done to their Second-Amendment stances.
However, at least two groups are not yet ready to let the gun-violence-debate fade as the GOP would like.
Rise and Shine Tennessee, a nonprofit group created during last year’s rallies against gun violence last year, will bring children aged 5-10 to Nashville to tell their stories to the media. The children will speak Tuesday morning as legislators prepare for the first day of the new session.
”It’s time to hear from the youth themselves about their desires and needs,” reads a statement from the group. “These youth are not pawns in a political game, but individuals impacted the most by inaction on gun safety.”
The group will return to Nashville Thursday with a group of high school students who have met with lawmakers, attended rallies, and sat in meetings of the legislature.
Another group will convene at Legislative Plaza Tuesday to “address gun violence and safety while upholding gun rights.” The TN11 group is comprised of 11 Tennesseans “from all sides of the ideological and political aisle,” including a firearms instructor, a former state trooper, a teacher, and a Memphis college student and activist.
”Gun violence is like a yarn ball — and not the kind that comes all rolled up and pretty — but the kind that is just everywhere,” reads a statement from the TN11 website from Memphis’ Jaila Hampton. “It’s so complex. There’s no overnight solution, and every day that we’re doing nothing, somebody is losing their life.”
This group used the online Citizens Solutions platform to help solve the divisive gun violence issue. Over the past few months, the group’s list of eight proposals on the matter were whittled down to five from more than 30,000 Tennesseans from all 95 counties. The group will present those proposals to lawmakers Tuesday.
The proposals include:
• Temporary removal of firearms based on risk of violence
• Tools to support responsible gun ownership
• Expansion of the roles of School Resource Officers
• Community investment to reduce trauma
• Gun issue literacy resources for schools, communities, and media
Another group likely to continue to speak out against gun violence here is Moms Demand Action Tennessee (MDAT). Members of that group were ever present during the special session in August with some among those kicked out of a committee room by a GOP chairman.
On Facebook Friday, MDAT posted a new ranking from the national Everytown for Gun Safety organization. Tennessee ranked 29th in the nation for gun law strength. The group said Tennessee had some of the weakest gun laws in the country with some of the highest rates of gun violence.
State gun violence statistics show that Tennessee has set a new annual record for the number of people who have been killed in mass shootings — and a majority of these shootings have taken place in Memphis.
The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an event where “four or more people [are] shot, not including the shooter.” A mass murder is defined as an event where “four or more people [are] fatally shot, not including the shooter.”
The archive’s database shows that so far in 2023 there have been a total of 29 people killed in mass shootings in Tennessee, with a total of 49 injured. It also shows there have been 13 mass shootings and three mass murders in the state this year. Nine of those mass shootings occurred in Memphis.
According to information compiled by TNUnderTheGun.com, a project from the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus, out of the 13 mass shootings in Tennessee this year, 19 adults and 10 children have died.
“The previous death toll record was set in 2021, when 15 mass shootings in Tennessee resulted in 20 deaths and 52 firearm injuries,” said the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus. “Last calendar year, there were 17 mass shootings with 12 deaths and 57 injuries.”
The Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus also said that there have been three mass murders with a firearm, the most since 2023. These included The Covenant School Shooting and “two murder-suicide, family annihilation events.”
While the data shows most of the mass shootings have taken place in Memphis, some have occurred in east, west, and middle Tennessee in both “urban and rural communities.”
Information compiled by the CDC shows Tennessee “had the fifth highest rate of firearm homicides for children in the nation.”
“The young, developing bodies of children are uniquely vulnerable to gun violence,” said the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus. “As firearm deaths have reached historic highs over the last decade, the Sycamore Institute reports that gunfire has become the leading cause of death among Tennessee children ages one-to-18.”
88 percent of Tennesseans support universal background checks for gun purchases.
82 percent support safe storage laws.
70 percent support red flag laws, which allow police to remove firearms from dangerous individuals.
70 percent oppose a move to lower Tennessee’s legal age to carry a gun from 21 to 18.
Similarly, Vanderbilt University conducted a poll in the spring of 2023 that found that 75 percent of Tennesseans support red flag laws to prevent school shootings — “including a strong majority (67 percent) of self-identified MAGA Republicans.”
African American Clergy Collective of Tennessee via Facebook
Organizations in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga have partnered with the African American Clergy Collective of Tennessee (ACCT) to address gun violence as a public health crisis.
“We know our worth — and when we join together as Tennesseans, we can demand that during the special session on safe communities and in the years ahead, the Supermajority Legislature and other decision-makers listen to what our families, from Knoxville to Bolivar, are calling for, common-sense policy solutions that recognize gun violence as a public health crisis and implore an evidence-based public health approach to reduce gun violence,” the ACCT said in a statement.
The ACCT said they will utilize the “public health approach outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization to reduce gun violence.”
Shirley Bondon, executive director of ACCT and the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, said they are not just concerned with school shootings, but all shootings.
“While school shootings are devastating, we have more children in our communities dying from suicides, drive-bys, accidental deaths, than all the school shootings put together,” said Bondon. “We want people to understand that’s why it needs to be comprehensive — to address all those issues.”
The Flyer spoke with Bondon about their specific approach, purpose, and plans to engage stakeholders.
Memphis Flyer:What are some of the key factors you believe contribute to gun violence, and how can a public health approach help address these?
Shirley Bondon: The public health approach brings resources, state, federal, and local, to an issue that impacts the entire community. We see this when we look at the opioid crisis, anything like that, with broad impact on people, that it takes a comprehensive approach to a pressing issue.
The root cause of gun violence can be trauma related to seeing violence in your community. It can impact children and their mental health. It can impact the elderly, when there is fear around crime and other problems within the community. We want it to be [approached as] a public health crisis because then you can provide resources and help them [the youth] deal with their anger or to deal with disagreements in a way that doesn’t involve violence — doesn’t involve guns or fighting — it helps to prevent gun violence. It can also be an intervention. Gun violence can impact you economically. If you have to go to the hospital, the medical debt is huge. If you’re saddled with medical debt, it can bankrupt the whole family. It’s harmful to the community at large. When there’s gun violence in the community, it will drive away business and economic development.
We’re looking for a comprehensive approach to address gun violence.
How do you plan to engage with community organizations, advocacy groups, and other stakeholders to address this?
There are intervention programs. There are organizations that go out in the community and work with the residents to help them to address the crime and violence in their communities, and to improve those communities. They can help them with their mental health issues, provide social services. Anything that will address the poverty and the trauma when it comes with the cycle of violence.
What are some of the potential challenges or barriers you anticipate in implementing a public health approach to address gun violence, and how do you plan to overcome them?
The greatest barrier is getting the decision-makers to see that it is a public health crisis and allocating the resources necessary to have a significant impact. Many of the things currently being proposed are really addressing the symptoms of gun violence, rather than the root cause, and so getting the decision-makers to understand that addressing the symptoms is not enough, and that there isn’t a quick fix. We didn’t get this way overnight and we can’t improve it overnight, so you really have to be in it for the long haul.
How do you all plan to engage with firearm owners or any Second Amendment advocates while working to reduce gun violence?
What most people don’t understand is that we’re not trying to take away their guns. We’re going to stress gun safety. We have a significant number of deaths in our community that are accidental deaths as it relates to gun violence. Then also we have people stealing guns that are not stored securely. We want gun owners to store their guns safely. We want them to take training on how to use their weapons safely. Those are the things we will do with them to understand gun safety.
Can you talk about the importance of collaborating with other organizations to address this issue?
We can’t do any of this alone. Because it is a public health crisis, it impacts everyone, and every avenue of society, every corner, every age group, and that’s why it’s important for educational awareness, to have everyone involved.
A Texas “gun enthusiast,” Francisco Oropeza, 39, was firing off his AR-15 in his yard Friday night, April 30th, about 40 miles from Houston. He was known to be touchy, so, despite the noise and danger, no one approached him. Finally, after 11 p.m., his neighbor did. He said something like, “Hey, man, can you not do that? We’ve got an infant in here trying to sleep.”
So, in America, what does a righteous gun owner do when his rights, his dignity, and his command over his own property are threatened by such outrageous demands? Of course, Oropeza marches to the offending neighbor’s home and bravely stands up for his Second Amendment rights. He shoots most of the family dead — five of them, including an 8-year old. Two smaller children were saved by their mothers shielding them with their bodies, and of course that was just an extra affront to the intrepid rifle owner, who shot both women dead. As of this writing, Oropeza is apparently surrounded by law enforcement.
So it goes. There is nothing to be done in our fair land. In Texas, it’s particularly sensitive. That’s where Trump did his kickoff rally to honor those who tried to overthrow the U.S. government when he lost the election. He did it in Waco, naturally, where, exactly 30 years ago, right-wing religious cult members — the Branch Davidians — were killed in a stupid ATF raid that was then marked by the militia members bombing the Oklahoma City federal office building on the Waco siege anniversary. Trump played on all this, either with his speech or with imagery on a big screen behind him. At least one preacher calls Trump “anointed of God … the battering ram that God is using to bring down the Deep State of Babylon.”
Alllllrighty, then.
Trump repeated much of his message at the recent National Rifle Association convention, telling the gun rights crowd, “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
Yeah, you da man, Trump. I’m betting Oropeza heard you loud and clear.
As did Ettore Lacchei, of Antioch, Illinois, who approached his neighbor doing some leaf-blowing in his own yard in the late afternoon. Lacchei didn’t get the neighbor to immediately stop, so he naturally assumed control of the situation by shooting his neighbor dead in the head. That was April 12th.
Most of us have heard of young Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old Black kid who was supposed to go to a Kansas City, Missouri, house he didn’t know and pick up his younger brothers. He knocked on the door, but it wasn’t the right house. An elderly white man, Andrew Lester, who, according to his grandson, had become increasingly devoted to Trump, didn’t risk opening the door to this skinny kid. He courageously shot the boy in the head right through the glass and then shot him again in the arm as he lay bleeding. Miraculously, Yarl is still alive. Lester explained that he was afraid due to “the size of the male” and described his victim — er, the threatening Black male — as “around six feet tall.” Yeah, um, Ralph is 5-feet-eight and 140 pounds.
The Gun Violence Archive notes where mass shootings happen but no one died, and it seems that, so far this year, Jasper, Texas teens hold that record at a party where 11 were shot but everyone survived. Should we assume the shooter was highly trained and only meant to wound partygoers? Guns, alcohol, and teens. What could go wrong?
What happens, politically, when these routine mass murders committed quite often by MAGA followers, and certainly almost always by NRA believers, are considered by our illustrious elected officials?
We are told most frequently that, in the wake of such tragedy, now is not the appropriate time to talk of change; it’s time for thoughts and prayers. Of course there is no let up to these killings committed by the Proud Boys who defend unlimited gun rights, so I suppose we just deal with an ongoing tsunami of thoughts and prayers and perpetually postpone actual change.
Sometimes some pesky mothers and others do the legwork to get new gun laws passed, as they did in my state of Oregon, but, as always, the alert lawyers from the NRA, sport shooting groups, etc., come to the rescue and those new gun laws are stopped, usually overturned, since we have a Second Amendment to protect access to combat weaponry.
And everyone knows it’s impossible to repeal an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, right? Well, there was that one time … the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment. But that was special because the 18th Amendment was Prohibition. Repealing the Second Amendment? Want to try? We know how to deal with such betrayal. Lock and load.
America: where all attempts to curb access to guns are shot down. Should we raise a glass to that? And I suppose we should stop calling children who are murdered anything but our expression for war casualties who happen to be 4, 5, 6 years old, “collateral damage.” If it’s good enough for Vietnamese children, Afghan children, Iraqi children — good enough for your children, right?
Dr. Tom H. Hastings is coordinator of conflict resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University, PeaceVoice senior editor, and on occasion an expert witness for the defense of civil resisters in court.
