The Politics of Gun Safety Are Changing. I Should Know.
I encourage people who, like me, are impatient for change to look around, because something is happening.
A mass shooting. Children dead. Families and communities grieving. Then the cycle repeats. I get asked over and over again: Why do mass shootings not motivate lawmakers to act? Why does nothing happen?
I understand the frustration. I’m a gun owner and a strong Second Amendment supporter. I’m also a physician and a grandfather. We have reached a public-health crisis where firearms are now the No. 1 killer of kids in America. Shockingly, the rate of firearm fatalities among children under 18 increased 87 percent from 2011 to 2021. Had the problem been this large during my time in the U.S. Senate, where I represented Tennessee for 12 years and served as majority leader for four, it would have unquestionably influenced my vote on key firearm-related legislation. I want to see proven firearm-safety policies enacted that protect our children—which we can achieve while preserving our Second Amendment rights.
Still, I encourage people who, like me, are impatient for change to look around, because something is happening. I am convinced lawmakers are listening.
In 2022, after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Congress came together, Republicans and Democrats, and passed the most comprehensive piece of firearm-safety legislation in nearly 30 years. Known as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the law did a number of things, including establishing an enhanced background-check process for buyers under 21 (which has stopped more than 600 firearm purchases by those who pose a threat to themselves or their community to date), providing funding for states to implement crisis-intervention programs, preventing convicted abusive dating partners from purchasing firearms for five years, creating new federal criminal statutes for firearm trafficking and straw purchasing, and investing in school safety and mental-health-care access. Did it solve all of our problems? No, but it signaled an important shift.
And the shift continues. Last year, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, one of our nation’s strongest Second Amendment governors, introduced an order-of-protection law to temporarily keep guns out of the hands of those exhibiting behavior that makes them a threat to themselves or others. When his proposal in response to last year’s Covenant School shooting failed to pass, he called the legislature back to Nashville for a special session on public safety, where lawmakers considered what types of changes they could support. We saw some incremental progress.
We also continue to see movement in Tennessee’s legislative session, including the advancement of bills that would prohibit firearm purchases by those deemed incompetent to stand trial and that would criminalize threats of mass violence, as well as proposed budget funding by the governor to address a 761,000-plus background-check-record backlog.
Part of this progress is due to the engagement of families frustrated that kids aren’t safe in their own schools, leading to the formation of several grassroots organizations, including one group that I’m a part of, Voices for a Safer Tennessee.
Another thing I’m excited about is access to data. In 2018, a de facto freeze on federal funding for firearm-violence research was overturned (based in part on the interpretation and recommendation of the Republican Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar), and we’re starting to see the results of investing in this field. Before, we had ideas about what might work, but lacked the evidence-based data to confirm them. Now we’re learning that temporary-transfer laws, which temporarily remove firearm access for those who are in danger of harming themselves or others, lead to reductions in state suicide rates. Secure-storage laws, when paired with penalties for noncompliance, reduce firearm deaths, particularly among children. States with universal background checks (including background checks for private sales) have reduced rates of firearm homicide.
These are all policies that enjoy broad bipartisan support: A national Fox News poll found majority voter support for universal background checks (87 percent) and temporary-transfer laws (80 percent). And a 2023 Vanderbilt University poll of Tennessee registered voters found majority support for secure-storage laws (68 percent) and even discovered that those who identified as NRA supporters backed “red flag” laws to prevent school shootings (68 percent) and gun-related violence (53 percent).
On March 27, we marked one year since the senseless Covenant School shooting in my community of Nashville. Thousands in my state came together to recognize this day by linking arms, creating a three-mile human chain to remember the six precious lives lost and the nearly 1,300 Tennesseans who have died from firearms this past year.
Now lawmakers must hear from the sizable majority of us who want change. If this is an issue that you care about, get engaged. Contact your legislators, vote in every election, and get local conversations started around this issue.
I know the legislative process moves slowly, on the state and federal level. I lived it for 12 years in the Senate. Change doesn’t happen overnight. But those who succeed are those who learn from the losses, celebrate the small wins—no matter how incremental—and stay committed for the long haul.