Tennessee Democrats are sounding the alarm and calling for action after what they call a "devastating new milestone" — the state recording its highest number of annual gun deaths ever.
In July, the Tennessee Department of Health released its 2025 Firearms Injuries and Deaths in Tennessee report, which centers on data from 2023 — the latest year for which there is a complete record. That report reveals that 1,588 gun deaths occurred across the state in 2023, with suicides (878) serving as the leading manner of firearm death, followed by homicides (668). Suicides, homicides and firearm deaths in general all increased statewide.
This week, another report — published by Tennessee Under the Gun, a data-collection project from the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus — is sounding the alarm over the fatality numbers, which increased from the previous record of 1,569 deaths in 2021. (Tennessee Under the Gun puts the 2023 number at 1,587.) The project uses data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the state of Tennessee, also for the year 2023.
Unable to rely on lawmakers to regulate guns, some Tennesseans have decided to risk gun ownership
“We're here today to make sure that Tennesseans see the truth, to make it impossible to look away, and to remind the state's leaders that their inaction has consequences, measured in lives lost,” state Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) said during a press conference on Tuesday unveiling the report.
The report also shows a 41 percent increase in gun deaths in Tennessee between 2013 and 2023.
“While states with common-sense gun safety laws are seeing fewer firearm deaths, Tennessee's rates are accelerating because of a decade-long Republican experiment in deregulation,” said Campbell. “Republican lawmakers have torn down nearly every safety measure that we once had, and the result is predictable. It's more shootings, it's more fatal suicides, and it's more dead children.”
Additional data compiled by Tennessee Under the Gun shows that Tennessee is ranked seventh for overall firearm fatalities of all ages; seventh for firearms deaths for children; sixth for firearm homicides of all ages; eighth for firearm homicides for children; 11th for firearm suicides for all ages; and eighth for firearm suicides for children.
In January, days after his inauguration, President Donald Trump closed the White House's Office of Gun Violence Prevention, launched in 2023 by President Joe Biden. The Trump administration’s efforts have continued to cut federal funding for gun violence prevention, leaving much of the legislative regulation efforts to the states.
But Tennessee’s Republican supermajority has shown little to no interest in passing gun reform measures, as evident during the state legislature's special session following the 2023 Covenant School shooting — a session that was ostensibly designed to pass gun-reform legislation, but did not.
“The state has made it very difficult to take local action, and I think that there's so much that can be done,” Campbell told reporters Tuesday. “And this is why we run legislation every year that would make Tennessee much safer. And every single year, these bills die in committee, they don't even get a second [vote].”
Tennessee Under the Gun’s lead researcher Beth Joslin Roth cited lower gun violence rates in other states that have utilized federal money, the Biden administration’s “Safer America” plan and increased law enforcement funding. Â
“What we've seen over these last several years is a decrease in gun violence in the states that took that money and used it effectively,” said Roth. “And we have to keep talking about that, because these policies, they make a difference, and how we spend money and where we invest that money, it matters, and it can save lives.”
