Lizzi Riordan

Advocacy group grows with statewide expansion of coalition, addition of three staff members and new board members  

Nashville, Tenn. (May 15, 2024) – Voices for a Safer Tennessee (Safer TN), a nonpartisan, statewide coalition dedicated to advancing firearm safety, announced today that the organization has raised more than $1.3 million in donations, a major milestone for the advocacy group as it celebrates its one-year anniversary. The contributions came from nearly 2,400 individual donors in 52 Tennessee counties, reflecting broad support for pragmatic, data-driven solutions to address the public health crisis of firearm injury and death that has reached historic highs in Tennessee.

Since its founding in the wake of The Covenant School shooting in March 2023, Safer TN has built an impressive Board of Directors with statewide representation and hired three staff members to carry out its mission to build safer, healthier communities by reducing preventable firearm tragedies across Tennessee. The efforts of the group already contributed to a number of early successes during the 2024 session of the Tennessee General Assembly, including securing funding to address our state’s background check backlog, enacting legislation to delay legal firearm access for those with violent criminal juvenile histories, and stopping legislation that would have allowed for the permitless open carry of loaded long guns.

“To progress from being a group of dedicated volunteers with a shared vision of a safer state in which we can all live and raise our kids, to a professionally staffed organization with statewide brand recognition and support in just one year is remarkable,” said Todd Cruse, board chair of Safer TN. “The response of Tennesseans who have supported us financially and through actions organized by our coalition demonstrates staying power and unity around firearm safety, and it gives me great hope for our continued progress and success.”

Safer TN was founded in April 2023 as a nonprofit advocacy organization and now includes an educational organization and a political action committee aimed toward supporting policymakers who align with the organization’s mission. Currently, firearms are the number one cause of death for Tennessee children, and the state leads the country for firearms stolen from vehicles. Further, Tennessee ranks 6th in the U.S. for firearm homicides, and has a firearm suicide rate that’s nearly 50 percent higher than the national rate. The strong support to address this growing crisis was evident in the nearly 12,000 Tennesseans who came together for Safer TN’s “Linking Arms for Change” event on the one-year anniversary of the Covenant tragedy, creating a three-mile-long human chain from Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital in Nashville, through Centennial Park, to the State Capitol.

“Nearly 30,000 people have joined our coalition because they share our belief that the growing number of firearm tragedies in Tennessee is a trend that must be stopped,” said Safer TN Vice Chair Nicole Floyd Smith. “Tennesseans from the state’s largest cities and rural communities, many of whom own firearms,

want to enact policy change that will protect our communities while also respecting the Second Amendment rights important to so many Americans.”

The three staff members who are leading the daily efforts of Safer TN include:

Claudia Huskey, executive director – Huskey is a veteran political strategist with more than two decades of advocacy experience in Tennessee, and is a founding member of Safer TN. In addition to managing political campaigns, Huskey has served in senior leadership roles in state and local government and raised millions of dollars for a broad range of causes and candidates. Prior to her role with Safer TN, Huskey was Annual Fund Director at University School of Nashville. She also served
as senior staff for Vice President Al Gore, Tennessee State Senator Lowe Finney and Nashville Mayor Megan Barry. Huskey is on the board of The Women’s Fund of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and is an active member of Woodmont Christian Church. She was a member of the Nashville Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 cohort of 2014 as well as the Nashville Emerging Leaders Class of 2008.

Erin Rogus, policy director – Rogus has worked in political strategy and policy development for nearly 20 years and also serves as senior advisor for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who sits on Safer TN’s advisory board. She served as a policy advisor for several Republican members of Congress and has extensive policy experience in firearm safety. She was a staffer for the Republican National Committee during the 2008 presidential election cycle and has worked on several statewide gubernatorial campaigns.

Emily Ezell, communications and operations manager – Ezell grew up on Lookout Mountain and in Chattanooga and is a founding member of Safer TN. Following an early career in landscape architecture, Ezell brings experience in social media, marketing, data analytics and project management to help Safer TN expand its nearly 30,000 members into an effective network of volunteers and advocates across the state.

Safer TN’s advocacy efforts show impact through passage of new laws aimed at preventing firearm tragedies and prevention of bills that threatened the safety of Tennesseans

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (April 25, 2024)— Following the adjournment of the 113th Tennessee General Assembly, Voices for a Safer Tennessee (Safer TN) sees incremental progress in Tennessee lawmakers’ enactment of some productive changes to advance firearm safety and their rejection of several dangerous bills. Safer TN, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving firearm safety and promoting responsible firearm ownership, is actively engaged in the legislative process through its coalition of concerned parents, faith leaders, hunters, educators, veterans, gun owners, and Tennesseans from all walks of life.

Stopping legislation that would have allowed the permitless open carry of loaded long guns, while passing legislation to delay until age 25 legal firearm ownership for those with histories of violent juvenile crime, are two of several meaningful steps forward lawmakers took this session.

“We’re seeing a subtle, but significant shift in the debate over firearm safety in the legislature,” said Erin Rogus, policy director for Safer TN. “We’re encouraged by the willingness of Governor Lee, along with the House and Senate leadership, to sit down with us and consider data-driven policies that will lift Tennessee out of the bottom tier of deadliest states in the U.S. for death by firearm, especially among children. There is an openness to addressing the problem that perhaps wasn’t there before the Covenant School tragedy in March 2023.”

Safer TN’s leadership recently met with Governor Lee to thank him for including funding in his budget to reduce the backlog of more than 761,000 background check records currently unprocessed by the state, and for funding “Jillian’s Law” in his budget amendment to address a dangerous gap in the state’s background check system.

Legislators sent several bills to the Governor for his signature that are central to long-term change:

• Jillian’s Law (HB1640 / SB1769) prohibits the purchase or possession of firearms by individuals deemed by a court to be incompetent to stand trial and establishes a process for involuntary committal of those who are incompetent and pose a danger to themselves or others. It’s named for Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig, who tragically lost her life last November to shots fired by a

mentally incompetent individual. Safer TN appreciates Governor Lee signing this into law on April 24th.

“In Voices for a Safer Tennessee’s first year of existence, we’ve built a reputation for honest, respectful dialogue with policymakers and demonstrated a focus on enacting laws that save lives and preserve the Second Amendment,” shared Safer TN board chair Todd Cruse. “We’re not finished with our work, and lawmakers know when they return, we’ll be back to continue the conversation.”

• HB1600 / SB2911 prohibits until age 25 the purchase or possession of a firearm by anyone with a violent criminal or mental health adjudication as a juvenile. This legislation is arguably the most significant policy to prevent juvenile and young adult crime the state has seen. It’s a major win for community safety, as studies show those ages 18-20 are most likely to commit homicide by firearm and are at elevated risk for suicide by firearm.
• The Chris Wright Act (HB2323 / SB2155) increases sentencing guidelines for repeat misdemeanor offenders, making the sixth qualifying misdemeanor a Class E felony after five previous misdemeanor convictions. Convicted felons are prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms. This legislation was introduced in response to the tragic shooting of community business leader Chris Wright in Chattanooga, who was killed by a violent individual with 27 misdemeanors, but because he wasn’t a convicted felon, he legally possessed a firearm.
• HB1846 / SB1657 requires an annual report by the state on the total number of firearm injuries and deaths per 100,000 people, which will provide more substantive data on firearm tragedies in our state
• HB 2198 / SB2263 increases the penalty for threatening to commit an act of mass violence on school property or at a school-related activity from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony, giving law enforcement a useful tool to better investigate and charge these types of threats. Safer TN also worked tirelessly to stop several dangerous bills that would have further eroded firearm safety laws. This includes the bill (HB2082 / SB2502) that would have allowed the permitless open carry of loaded long guns in public spaces, as well as several bills that would have allowed those with carry permits to carry handguns in posted places of business – directly at odds with property owners’ rights and the rights of business owners to determine their own safety needs. And notably, a constitutional amendment (HJR38 / SJR904) failed to advance that would have removed the language that gives the Legislature “the power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime.”

HB1202 / SB1325, which was opposed by Safer TN, ultimately passed with significant safety and training requirements that must be met before school personnel are allowed to carry firearms. If enacted these restrictions, which include giving school districts the ability to opt-out of the program entirely, make it likely the impact of the legislation will be limited. Safer TN plans to engage its coalition to share with school districts and local law enforcement data on why adding firearms to gun-free zones does not make Tennesseans safer, so schools can make evidence-informed decisions on this new program.

”We would not have seen this steady and serious progress without the tireless efforts of the more than 250 Safer TN volunteers who maintained a consistent, visible presence at House and Senate Committee hearings and in meetings with legislators, as well the countless members of the coalition statewide who called and wrote to legislators urging their support of Safer TN’s policy priorities,” said Claudia Huskey, executive director of Safer TN. “Polls show that most Tennesseans favor pragmatic firearm safety measures. Our voices are making a difference.”