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A resolution calling on the Tennessee General Assembly to pass common sense gun reforms during its upcoming special session.
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WHEREAS, the Nashville community remains devastated by the deaths of three children and three adults due to a senseless act of gun violence at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023;
WHEREAS, every day, an average 120 Americans are killed by gun violence, alongside more than 200 who are shot and wounded, and on average there are more than 17,000 gun homicides and nearly 25,000 gun suicides every year, with nearly six out of ten gun deaths being suicides; and
WHEREAS, people in the United States are 26 times more likely to die by gun homicide than people in other high-income countries; and
WHEREAS, there are an average of 1,385 gun deaths each year in Tennessee; and
WHEREAS, firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in America; and
WHEREAS, 350 children under the age of 18 unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else in the U.S. on average every year. From 2015 through 2022, there were more than 2800 unintentional shootings by children, resulting in more than 1000 deaths and 1800 injuries nationally; and
WHEREAS, Guns from home (or a friend/family member's home) are used in the majority of child firearm suicides as well as targeted incidents of violence on school grounds; and
WHEREAS, Access to a gun triples the risk of death by suicide and doubles the risk of death by homicide; and
WHEREAS, between 2009 and 2020, the five deadliest mass shootings incidents in America involved the use of assault weapons and/or high-capacity magazines, and
WHEREAS, a 2019 study found that mass shooting fatalities were 70 percent less likely to occur from 1994 to 2004, when the federal prohibition on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines was in effect, than during the approximately 13 years studied before and after the prohibition; and
WHEREAS, we should not have to live in fear that gunfire can ring out a...
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