Voices for a Safer Tennessee discusses firearm safety advocacy efforts

RED BANK, Tenn. (WDEF)-  The latest advocacy efforts on firearm safety were discussed Friday morning at the Chattanooga Breakfast Rotary Club.
The presentation was put on by Voices for a Safer Tennessee.

They are an advocacy group that was created in the wake of the 2023 Covenant School Shooting in Nashville.

Their main policy goals are to expand background checks and encourage secure storage for firearms, and they say they are not advocating for gun control.

They say they’ve achieved recent policy wins on banning glock switches (already banned at the federal level) and the passage of Jillian’s Law, which mandates that defendants found incompetent to stand trial be committed to a mental health institution.

Data presented this morning states that Hamilton County has a higher firearm death rate than Boston, Dallas, and Miami between 2019 and 2023.

Tennessee has had 93 mass shootings of four plus victims in the past five years, along with over 30,000 firearms stolen from vehicles.

The group says that gun safety education is among their top priorities in preventing future gun deaths.

The chair of the organization’s board, Dori Thornton Waller, said, “This is a challenging issue to talk across party lines on but what we’re trying to do is draw the common ground between Democrats and Republicans, which we are a non-partisan group. We have so many of our policies appeal, as you saw from the poll of Republican primary voters, your most loyal Republicans, and we have great support, over 50 percent for every single one of our issues.”

Voices for a Safer Tennessee is holding a Back to School Bash on Sunday afternoon, September 21, at White Duck Taco on Main Street from 3 to 5. 

They say that event is designed to help increase awareness on gun safety.