Nashville Mayor John Cooper declared gun violence a public health crisis, following a resolution from Metro Nashville City Council.
Cooper approved the resolution on Wednesday. The resolution recommended that the city execute further research on the physical and mental health impacts of un violence.
The resolution was announced earlier this month, several days after Mother’s Day. All council members except Zach Young, Kevin Rhoten, Mary Carolyn Roberts, Tanaka Vercher, Delishia Porterfield, Steve Glover were listed as sponsors on the bill.
The resolution claimed that the amount of deaths caused by gun violence signaled a health crisis. It cited President Joe Biden’s assessment of gun violence as “an epidemic.” In part, the Biden Administration promised to have the Justice Department issue a proposed rule to stop the creation of “ghost guns,” which are homemade firearms that lack serial numbers. They also promised that the Justice Department would publish model “red flag” legislation.
Legislators have pushed for other issues to be considered public health crises.
After the American Medical Association (AMA) declared in November that racism was a “public health crisis,” many state legislators attempted to model the AMA announcement within their own resolutions.
In 2018, the AMA said that gun ownership was a “disease” and passed some gun-related resolutions. They’ve consistently called for the ban on the sale and ownership of all assault-style weapons.
A Tennessee state legislator attempted to mirror the AMA resolution. State Representative Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis) pushed for the state to recognize that racism presents a public health emergency.
The legislature deferred Parkinson’s resolution to summer study.
2020 marked one of the most violent years in Nashville. There were 109 people murdered, about as many as in 2017. Gun-related violent crimes rose to 25 percent; aggravated assaults with a firearm rose up to 40 percent.
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
I declare being governed by moron democrats a threat to public safety
Black teenagers committing the majority of shootings seem to be the problem on a daily basis. Address this huge problem Mr Cooper…. keeping it real!!
I was going to post a comment , but the 4 guys before me summed it up quite well. It is our right to defend ourselves – i.e. to keep and bear arms.
Claiming that banning so called “ghost guns” will impact crime is akin to claiming that banning home beer brewing kits will impact alcoholism.
Typical liberal smokescreen. While violence against another human being is inexcusable, it seems to occur more in democratic controlled cities. I wonder why? Of all the methods used to kill another person, firearms are not at the top of the list. The true “public health crisis” is stupidity, which the left has a terminal case of. For example, let’s reduce the ability of law enforcement to remove those who would do us harm from the streets, while at the same time taking away our ability to defend ourselves by restricting our right to own and possess firearms.
These attempts by the donks and other left leaning NGOs (the AMA for example) are “micro aggressions” of the true intent of the global leftists (i.e. the UN) to completely disarm the free world. The attempted socialist domination of the world is a public freedom crisis that has been going on for centuries. Make no mistake about it, they will continue to chip away at our rights to defend ourselves even if it takes another century. This struggle between good and evil has been going on before recorded history.
Oh here we go! Every time one of these leftist politicians open their pie holes, we have a “public crisis”! You have to wonder if Cooper and the whole lot of these Leftists realize how ridiculous and hypocritical they sound? What is the first thing that they all do when they “perceive” a threat to themselves? Surround themselves with paid, gun toting, security! Remember, how Megan always had her “gun-wielding”, City provided, security while on official business, like touring those boneyards!
I can see it already, Nashville will try to enact some DC-like gun restrictions. I sure hope that our State leadership does something to protect us from this kind of overreach!
Right Kevin, like Megan Barry, armed protection is only for the elite ruling class, while the lowly common people must be disarmed lest “the guns fall into the wrong hands”. See the noun and the verb, the guns fall”. It’s the inanimate object fallinng, instead of penalizing the criminal “wrong hands”. By the way, Megan Barry closed down the gun shows at the Nashvilke Fairgrounds, through which they found that THREE GUNS had originally been acquired which were later used in crimes. Oh yeah, that really helped. They always attack the rights and freedoms of the People while EXEMPTING THEMSELVES! It’s what oligarchs and tyrants have always done down through history–and still do!
“Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust them people and so deprive them of arms.” –Aristotle, circa 300 B.C.
Kevin we already have it covered. State law rules all period!
Preemption (TN)
The Tennessee general assembly preempts “the whole field of the regulation of firearms, ammunition, or components of firearms or ammunition, or combinations thereof . . .” “No county, city, town, municipality, or metropolitan government nor any local agency, department, or official shall occupy any part of the field regulation of firearms, ammunition or components of firearms or ammunition, or combinations thereof.” The statute provides a non-exhaustive list of activities upon which regulation is preempted. Additionally, the statute states the general assembly “declares that the lawful design, marketing, manufacture and sale of firearms and ammunition to the public are not unreasonably dangerous activities and do not constitute a nuisance per se.
P.S. Make sure to open carry as much as possible come July 1. The optics and making the leftists uncomfortable with our freedoms is more important now than ever before.
The majority of gun violence is committed by minority youth, it could be motivated by no fear of the local judicial system as they know they will get off with no punishment or could it be they also know if they do get punished the Communist Oversight Board (COB) will get minorities off without any punishment. Comrade Cooper in large part and the Democratic judges both with their liberal policies have created this mess. The hands of people that could clean up this problem have been tied. The Old Queen Cooper to the rescue, the worst mayor in Tennessee!
The majority of gun crimes are NOT the majority’s responsibility. This is more of a minority problem, that has been ALLOWED to enlarge to where it is encroaching upon the majority.
Number of mass shootings: for 2020 = 612. Those with a known perpetrator = 149. Those with an unknown perpetrator = 463. The known perpetrators, by race are, Black 118 (73%), White 22 (14%), Latino 22 (14%), Asian 0 (0%). Over 60% of USA’s murders are gang related, INCLUDING mass shootings. The vast majority are never reported in the news, since they do not fit the narrative, and are mostly ghetto related.
Who really does the majority of these crimes go quietly unnoticed because the killers are not middle-class, they go unnoticed because the shooters had no mullet, nor were they eligible for the Utah Jazz, and (Bill) Gates Millennium, Scholarships. Only those with a country club car-sticker are displayed (plastered) on OUR U.S. media screens. So, our masses remain ignorant, due to their own ignorance of BEING ignorant. Poof! The sheeple were created.
The irony IS… it will be outstanding EDUCATIONS that bring these gangsters OUT of the ghetto, and end the systemic violence that is the problem (NOT racism). That’s the cure, Education; and the cure is on a path that is simple to pursue. Smarter people are significantly less likely to commit crimes.
If ONLY “they” would TRY. Just ONE time. Try. Those who spend the TRILLION$… on absolutely NOTHING. But more PROFIT.
Dammit, people, wake up and smell the problem. It’s the politicians and (especially) those who control our politicians.