The past two weeks have brought conflicting news. We’ve pointed to data showing firearm deaths declined in 2024 and are trending down in 2025. Yet Tennessee continues to see an outsized number of shootings compared to the national average, and smaller, more rural communities are not immune. A recent workplace shooting in Cleveland, Tennessee, underscores a critical truth: most mass shootings occur on the job.
1-What We’re Tracking: Shooting in a plastics plant leaves two dead
Two men were shot and killed Monday at a plastics plant in Cleveland, Tennessee, about an hour outside Chattanooga. Police say the shooter — an employee who was being terminated — killed a fellow employee and the vice president of Barku Plastics. The gunman was later found dead in a Bradley County residence from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Both victims were fathers simply doing their jobs. Tragically, their stories are not uncommon.
Although the Cleveland shooting doesn’t meet The Violence Prevention Project’s definition of a mass shooting — four or more people shot and killed without underlying criminal activity — it reflects a similar dynamic. The group’s research finds that most mass shootings in the U.S. happen in workplaces, frequently linked to employment issues.
Their data show these incidents occur almost equally across rural and suburban areas compared to urban settings. It also suggests that there are often warning signs beforehand, with many perpetrators experiencing a crisis leading up to the violence.
This is why Safer TN supports establishing a temporary firearm transfer process — with a court procedure and due process safeguards — to reduce firearm access for individuals who pose a danger to themselves or others. Tennessee already has a similar law: individuals under an order of protection must temporarily transfer their firearms for the duration of the order. This life-saving measure could be expanded to include those in crisis to help prevent harm before it happens.
2-What We’re Tracking: Reminder — upcoming (FREE) events!
Safer TN volunteers have a busy fall and winter ahead. The first event is tonight! Join Safer TN at 6:30 p.m. at Franklin First United Methodist Church for a panel discussion with community leaders on firearm safety, featuring former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D.; Franklin Mayor Dr. Ken Moore; pediatrician Paige Smith, M.D.; and more. Learn more and register here.
3-What We’re Tracking: What Tennessee can learn from our “reddest county” on firearm safety
Scott County — which earned the moniker “Tennessee’s reddest county” when nearly 90% of voters cast ballots for President Trump in 2024 — has taken an innovative approach to keeping domestic violence victims safe. With a population of about 22,000, this rural county bordering Kentucky overhauled its entire approach to domestic violence cases, bringing together law enforcement, prosecutors, victim advocates, and service providers under one roof through the county’s Family Justice Center. It also launched one of the state’s only courts dedicated solely to domestic violence.
Now, with support from a new grant, the University of Memphis Public Safety Institute is evaluating Scott County’s coordinated community response — a model that brings every stakeholder to the table to promote victim safety and offender accountability — as well as the county’s Family Justice Center, with the goal of identifying best practices and creating a template that can be replicated across Tennessee.
Scott County has also taken a step to close a potentially deadly gap in domestic violence orders. The county revised its firearm dispossession form to require abusers to name the person holding their guns and verify the transfer making it the only county in Tennessee to do so.
4-What We’re Tracking: More data points to a decline in firearm deaths
As we shared in our last newsletter, preliminary CDC data show that firearm deaths declined in 2024, and new reporting from The Trace indicates that gun deaths are continuing to fall in 2025 in both rural and urban areas.
Cities like Memphis and Nashville are seeing encouraging trends. Memphis has recorded fewer firearm deaths this year than in several previous years, and Nashville’s mayor recently announced that September was a homicide-free month. The overall rate of decline in firearm homicides is even greater in 2025 than in 2024, when the decrease broke all previous records.
This progress is heartening and underscores that change is possible. But every firearm death remains a tragedy, and most are preventable. These data remind us that our collective efforts matter and that continued education, secure storage, and evidence-based policy can help sustain and build on this momentum toward a safer Tennessee.
