Safer TN Tracker | July 26, 2024 - Voices for a Safer Tennessee

We have two more days to vote early in this primary election, which will set the course for the next session of the General Assembly. It’s hard to overstate the importance of the primary: Because of the way Tennessee’s state legislative and Congressional districts are drawn, the primary is often the race to win and determines who will hold the seat. We are, in effect, choosing a large percentage of our legislature NOW.

To date, only 5% of registered voters in Tennessee have cast ballots in the primary. We have an opportunity – and an obligation – to help turn that around. To make an impact, every member of our coalition needs to vote and to make sure family members and friends do, too.

Safer TN is not endorsing candidates in this election, but we encourage you to educate yourself about the candidates on your ballot and where they stand on firearm safety. Use our online voter tool to start your research.

Like many of you, I’m a busy working parent. I don’t wait until Election Day to vote, because there’s always a risk that a sick child or other emergency will throw a wrench into the day’s schedule. That’s why I take advantage of Tennessee’s early voting window to make sure I get to the polls. We at Safer TN urge you to do the same. You can find early voting locations and hours in your county here.

If you don’t get a chance to cast an early vote today or tomorrow, polls are open on election day – Thursday, August 1 – with polling locations listed here.

Thank you for using your vote to create a safer Tennessee for our children and communities.

With gratitude,

Claudia Huskey
Executive Director
Voices for a Safer Tennessee

We looked at the data and we’re lagging previous early voter totals – with only three voting days left! The latest figures show 167,399 FEWER Tennesseans have voted early than at this point in 2020. Let’s change that with a strong finish!

Make a voting plan:

Find your polling place and polling hours.

Educate yourself on who is on the ballot. You can look up a sample ballot for your district here, and use our new voter tool to see who is on the ballot and easily access their websites for info about their policy positions.

Head to the polls! Make sure you bring a valid photo ID issued by the State of Tennessee or the U.S. Government. Student IDs are not accepted.

Friday, July 26 and Saturday, July 27 are the LAST days to early vote in the primary. Primary election day is Thursday, August 1st.

Tennessee can’t be LAST! According to recent election data, Tennessee has the LOWEST voter turnout in the nation – meaning the elected officials who are making vital decisions about our firearm safety laws are elected by only a small fraction of Tennesseans.

The Safer TN coalition is heading to the polls! And teaching our kids about the importance of making our voices heard with our votes:

Show us your “I voted” sticker (and any little voting helpers!) by tagging us on social at @voices4safertn #SaferTN

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on why his office made the decision to issue a historic Advisory on Gun Violence in America, identifying it as a “Public Health Crisis”:

First, the Surgeon General’s publications in the Office of the Surgeon General have been used in the past to draw the country to action around critical issues. I think about smoking back in 1964, when Surgeon General Luther Terry issued the first Surgeon General’s Report on tobacco. That was a time when cigarette smoking was deeply interwoven into the culture of America. Forty-two percent of the country smoked. Kids and adults were both seeing advertisements for smoking all the time. Doctors smoked. It seemed like it was the normal thing to do.

Yet, despite that, when we realized that smoking is a public health issue, we took action to address it. That report catalyzed a series of programs, educational initiatives, youth advocacy efforts, as well as policies from lawmakers that ultimately helped reduce smoking from 42 percent in 1964 to below 12 percent, where it is today.

I look at our country’s experience with car accidents, with car accident-related deaths. And here, too, you can see a moment where, rather than just accepting the high level of car accident-related deaths as the new normal, we said, “No, we can make cars safer. We can prevent this loss of life.” And that’s what we did.Even on intractable issues, we can make progress when we see them for what they are: public health issues that require a public health approach. And so I do draw some inspiration from that. Here, too, the solution is complex, but it’s feasible, and it’s possible.

While there is often the perception that the increase in firearm injury and death is an urban problem, recent analysis of Gun Violence Archive data shows small towns and rural areas in the South have seen a 70% increase in shooting deaths and injuries from 2014 – 2023.