Bills aimed at reducing gun deaths fail in TN Senate
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Two Tennessee Senate bills aimed at reducing gun deaths failed on Monday.
Sen. London Lamar, of Memphis, proposed a bill that would have revoked permit-less carry in Shelby and Davidson County, and another bill that would have “used already existing resources” for a youth employment program and more.
Monday, in the Judiciary Committee, Lamar explained her bill.
“It gives a cost-free option to reduce gun violence in our cities and counties across the state,” she said.
Along with requiring the Department of Labor to create the youth program, she says the bill would have also required “the Department of Health to create hospital-based intervention programs for families who are victims of gun violence, and would get the Department of Health to create a gun safety program for children who live at home with firearms, and would get the Department of Education required to develop conflict resolution programing for students.”
This bill failed in a 6-3 vote. However, its House Bill counterpart was assigned to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee.
Lamar’s other bill would have returned Shelby and Davidson County to the previous permitting system.
She said the bill would not have changed the system in any of the rural counties.
“Guns sure, they don’t kill people by themselves, but the people who get ahold of to them are one that’s are increasing the high homicides in Memphis and Davidson County, and the high homicide rates that the state of Tennessee is known around the nation for,” Lamar stated. “Why not make anyone who is using a deadly tool get the education they need to understand how to use this tool?”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics, the state’s homicide rate was 11.5 deaths per 100,000 population in 2020. There were a total of 753 deaths.
That is compared to Illinois’, which was 11.2 per 100,000 with a total of 1,353 deaths.
The bill failed 7-2 on Monday as well. Its House counterpart was also reset.
SEE ALSO: Bill aims to rename state’s handgun carry permit
SEE ALSO: Bills, resolutions regarding firearms discussed in Nashville
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