PROBLEM STATEMENTS:

The problem is not taking guns from Tennesseans, but removing guns from criminal elements that take the lives of innocent people through mass killings, robbery, drive-by incidents, carjacking, gang affiliations, and domestic violence.

(a) Firearms remain the leading cause of child deaths in Tennessee. Firearms continued to be the leading cause of death among Tennessee children, responsible for one in every five fatalities among children aged 1 to 17 in 2022, according to new data from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.

(b) The vast majority of the state’s child homicide victims died at the hands of a person with a gun (83%), while firearms were responsible for three percent of all unintentional child deaths.

(c) In January of 2025, the data marks the third consecutive year in which firearms have overtaken car accidents as Tennessee’s leading cause of children’s deaths. 

(d) In total, 180 homicides and 18 unintentional deaths of children between  2019 and 2022 involved guns, according to the published data. 

(e) The report released by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth provides a comprehensive snapshot of the lives and deaths of Tennessee children, as well as the economic, educational, and social factors that shape their childhoods.  

(f) Children, elders, and innocent Tennesseans being killed by excessive guns on the streets is unacceptable. No citizen should fear living in the State of Tennessee because of out-of-control gun sales and accessibility to guns on the black market or the loopholes of gun shows. In the State of Tennessee, a young person at the age of 8 can obtain a gun more easily than obtaining food or shelter.

(g) The mindsets of politicians must change regarding gun safety and gun control, not from the perspective of being armed, but saving lives. Criminals should not have guns or assault rifles more powerful than those of police officers. Every assault rifle on the streets due to the permitless gun carrying law places the lives of public servants, first responders, children, elders, families, and business owners in jeopardy every day across the State of Tennessee. Indeed, it is a person's constitutional right to bear arms, but it is the ultimate oath of office for politicians to protect the citizens of the State of Tennessee through our Tennessee Constitution. No matter where you stand politically, we must use common sense in this epidemic of lives being unnecessarily lost, including innocent children.

(h) The loss of mandated federal background checks for all individuals purchasing firearms from licensed dealers initially established a five-day waiting period for handgun sales to give authorities time to conduct the checks.

(i) Reinstate the law that banned the manufacture, sale, and importation of certain specific semi-automatic "assault weapons" (such as the Colt AR-15 and TEC-9) and large-capacity ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds.

(j) Reinstate the law that prohibits juveniles under 18 from possessing handguns and makes it illegal for adults to transfer handguns to minors. Recreational activities regarding rifles would be in another classification of safety mechanisms and family transfer ownership.

(k) Disinvestment in underserved and marginalized neighborhoods should not be associated with encouraging crime; this promotes poverty, survival mode, the prison-to-school pipeline, drug distribution, an increase in gang affiliations, and unnecessary deaths.

(l) Systemic racism, biased laws, and discriminatory policies should not be baked into gun sales, governmental laws, population control, and cultural genocide.

(m) Gun violence drives much of this increased risk, as low-income Black residents are more often exposed to both poly-victimization and the violent loss of multiple loved ones. Blacks have a greater “cumulative risk of death exposure” than whites, which has “corrosive effects on Black families and communities”. This burden of premature and excess death has persisted for generations, and sociologists Jackson and Shauman (2019) estimated that there were almost 7.7 million excess deaths among Black Americans from 1900–1999.

Factors That Must Be Considered:

• Nearly 20% of Tennessee kids lived below the federal poverty line in 2023. Children under five experience the highest rates of poverty of any age group in the state

• Market-rate childcare center costs for infants now rival in-state tuition at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville at $13,484, according to 2024 data, placing quality care beyond reach of many Tennessee families. 

• One in four Tennessee high school students considered suicide last year. 

• The youth crime rate (ages 10 to 17) increased slightly from 2022 to 2023, but remains below pre-pandemic numbers. In 2013, Tennessee recorded 34,378 crimes committed by youth aged 10 to 17, a rate of 51.3 per 1,000.  By 2023, there were 30,944 – a rate of  43.3 per 1,000.

CONSTITUTIONAL FACTS AND LIMITATIONS:

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms, primarily for the purpose of self-defense. Ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, the exact text reads:

"A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Core Legal Rulings

• Individual Right to Self-Defense: In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the Supreme Court clarified that the amendment protects an individual's right to possess firearms for lawful purposes (such as home self-defense), unconnected to service in a militia.

• Application to States: In McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), the Supreme Court ruled that this right applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.

• Public Carry: In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (2022), the Court affirmed that this right extends to carrying firearms in public for self-defense.

Limitations on the Right

The Supreme Court has repeatedly noted that Second Amendment rights are not absolute. The law generally permits certain restrictions, including prohibitions on:

• Firearm possession by convicted felons or the mentally ill.

• The carrying of "dangerous and unusual weapons".

• Carrying firearms in sensitive locations (e.g., government buildings, schools).

CRIME OVERSIGHT:

(a) As the next Governor of the State of Tennessee, I believe that the epidemic of the lack of gun regulation and gun control is intentionally designed to create genocide of underserved and marginalized communities, excite tyranny of the people, and boost a form of control regarding the narrative of the right to bear arms. I am strongly for the 2nd Amendment, but allowing guns to be on the streets for criminal activities must be curtailed, and it starts with a Governor with the fortitude to want to protect Tennesseans.

(b) The focus and introduction of gun safety in school needs to be from a holistic approach, incorporating parent education, crime reduction, poverty, Adverse Community Experiences, literacy, survival of the fittest, conflict resolution, anger management, mental illness, drug usage, and cultural change. A new state law requires every student from kindergarten through high school to learn lessons on gun safety. Kindergartners should be introduced to more books, adequate housing, school equity, and healthy nutrition instead of gun safety.

GUN HOMICIDES

(1) Gun homicide is a significant public health epidemic that disproportionately impacts low-income Black communities. Although the United States has experienced substantial reductions in violent crime over the last three decades, fatal and nonfatal shootings spiked during the COVID pandemic, which only widened racial disparities in firearm violence. Black Americans continue to experience the highest firearm homicide rates in every age group, and overall firearm rates in 2021 were the highest documented since 1993. Homicide is still the leading cause of death for Black men and boys ages 15 to 34, and the second leading cause of death for Black women and girls ages 15 to 24 (CDC and Prevention National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2022). Rates of intimate partner violence have declined, but Black women are still four times more likely to be murdered by a significant other than their white counterparts (Frazer et al.,2028). Gunshot victimization is highly spatially concentrated and typically clusters among young Black men involved in small, identifiable co-offending networks. Assaultive gun violence is said to reduce the life expectancy of Black Americans by at least three years (Kalesan et al., 2019) and is correlated with complex social determinants of health such as structural racism and concentrated disadvantage (Burrell et al., 2021).

(2) Despite a growing literature on gun victimization in marginalized Black communities, less attention has been paid to the collateral consequences of the family, peers, and community members who are left behind. As members of this extended network, Black women and girls are disproportionately bereaved by violent and excess deaths, especially those who are in closer proximity to street life and distressed conditions in urban Black neighborhoods. But the critical perspectives and attitudes of this population are often simultaneously missing from our analyses on gun homicide (Author, 2022; Lindsey, 2022).

1.2. Literature Review

ATWATER'S CRIME PREVENTION SUICIDE PLAN:

(a) Work to provide education on mental health and suicide prevention to the firearm-owning community to reduce the rate of suicide by firearm.

(b) Ensure gun owners and their families know that the State respects their right to own and use firearms for recreational shooting, hunting, personal and home protection. At the same time, we know that millions of Tennesseans will struggle with their mental health at some time during their lives, and that during difficult times, steps should be taken without compromising the right to own firearms to reduce access and prevent a tragedy.

(c) As the next potential Governor of the State of Tennessee, I will partner with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other veteran outreach agencies to create a Tennessee safe firearm storage toolkit designed to help prevent suicide among veterans. The toolkit guides communities through the process of building coalitions to raise awareness about securely storing firearms when not in use.

(d) Develop a Tennessee Suicide Prevention toolkit to help firearm retailers, shooting range operators, and customers understand risk factors and warning signs related to suicide, know where to find help, and encourage secure firearms storage options.

(e) Collaborate with the firearm industry to lead the way in creating safer communities through proven partnerships with law enforcement, elected officials, and community leaders.

Atwater's Goal and Strategies:

1. Implement the First Tennessee Comprehensive State Crime Control, Accountability & Prevention Plan (TC-SCCAPP).

2. A call to action for stricter gun regulations and crime reform.

3. Incorporate into the State's budget a more equitable distribution of state and federal funds to address the economic disparities in low-income, underserved, and marginalized neighborhoods.

4. Hold governmental officials accountable for these insidious acts against Tennesseans.

5. Collaborate with the Attorney Generals and District Attorneys to reopen cold cases as it relates to police brutality and homicides.

6. Tennessee's "Project Safe Child" offers free educational resources to demonstrate the importance of firearm safety and to encourage the promotion and practice of responsible firearm ownership, incorporating parents or guardians in this process.

7. Increase educational resources to demonstrate the importance of firearm safety and to encourage the promotion and practice of responsible firearm ownership.

8. Work with law enforcement agencies around the state to provide free firearm safety kits that include a cable-style gun lock and educational resources to help families, neighborhoods, and communities store firearms safely and securely.

9. Beyond our partnerships with law enforcement, we also work with ranges, retailers, instructors, churches, community organizations, health care facilities, and individual gun owners across the country to help prevent firearm accidents, thefts, and misuse, including suicide.

10. Encourage a robust engagement and action plan with gun owners, law enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Elected Officials, School Administrators, Youth, Parents, Coaches, Community Stakeholders, Psychologists, Social Workers, Community Organizations, Street Organizations, Street Interrupters, Judges, District Attorneys, and Attorney Generals.