About Tennessee Under the Gun
Tennessee Under the Gun, a project of the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus, serves as an online database for statistics and information about gun violence in the state of Tennessee. The website pulls information from respected public sources, such as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, FBI, CDC, Tennessee General Assembly, the Gun Violence Archive and media reports. The research is maintained by caucus staff, led by Beth Joslin Roth, who also founded The Safe Tennessee Project — a nonprofit dedicated to preventing gun violence in the state.
About the Tennessee Under the Gun data sources
Data contained within this site comes from a variety of sources.
Gun Violence Archive
Real-time shooting information used for tracking both 2023 mass shootings and gun violence incidents this summer is sourced from The Gun Violence Archive. The Gun Violence Archive is an online archive of gun violence incidents collected from over 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources daily in an effort to provide near-real time data about the results of gun violence. GVA is an independent data collection and research group with no affiliation with any advocacy organization.
For more information about GVA, click here.
For more information about their methodology, click here.
WISQARS™ — Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System
Historical data related to firearm fatalities, firearm homicides, and firearm suicides as well as current state rankings for firearm fatalities, firearm homicides, and firearm suicides is sourced from the CDC’s WISQARS™ Fatal Injury Reports, an interactive, online database compiled of state health departments’ data. Researchers, the media, public health professionals, and the public can use WISQARS™ data to learn more about the public health and economic burden associated with unintentional and violence-related injury in the United States.
For more information about WISQARS™, click here.
To access the WISQARS™ Fatal and Violence databases, click here.
The Violence Policy Center
Data related to Women Murdered by Men and Black Homicide Victimization is sourced from publications produced by The Violence Policy Center. The Violence Policy Center (VPC) is a national tax-exempt educational organization working for a safer America through research, investigation, analysis, and advocacy.
For more information about the VPC, click here.
To read the most recent publication of When Men Murder Women, click here.
To read the most recent publication of Black Homicide Victimization in the United States, click here.
The FBI Uniform Crime Report
Tennessee’s ranking as the state with the third highest rate of violent crime came from a report by 24/7 Wall Street using data from the 2020 FBI Uniform Crime Report. The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program generates reliable statistics for use in law enforcement. It also provides information for students of criminal justice, researchers, the media, and the public. The program has been providing crime statistics since 1930. The UCR Program includes data from more than 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies. Agencies participate voluntarily and submit their crime data either through a state UCR program or directly to the FBI's UCR Program.
For more information about the FBI UCR, click here.
To read the 24/7 Wall Street report, click here.
The #NotAnAccident Index
Data related to unintentional shootings involving children and unsecured guns is sourced from the #NotAnAccident index, a data tracker created and updated by Everytown for Gun Safety.
For more information about the index, click here.
​
The Department of Safety
Gun permit data is sourced from the Tennessee Department of Safety.
To see yearly gun permit reports, click here.
​
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
Background check data is sourced from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
To see yearly background check reports, click here.
​