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.”
A poll that was conducted by Pollster Embold Research in April also found that:
- 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.”