The Tennessee General Assembly convened on Jan. 9, 10 months after the shooting at the Covenant School that killed six, including three students. Since then, there have been numerous stories related to gun violence, whether that’s Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig’s death from a stray bullet or the deaths of three adults and three children in a murder-suicide in Marion County or so many others that don’t show up in the news.
During that time, the General Assembly didn’t pass a single meaningful law that would prevent or lessen gun violence in our state. Instead, it banned signs in the gallery and committee hearing rooms. Yet, according to a June 26 report from the Sycamore Institute, a nonpartisan public policy center here in Tennessee, gun deaths in our state have been on a consistent rise, with people on the margins and the most vulnerable suffering the most. Among their main findings:
Statistics on gun deaths in Tennessee
∎ Gunfire was the 10th leading cause of death overall, but the leading cause of death for children under the age of 18.