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.