Judges across Tennessee are now demanding more accountability for people ordered to surrender their guns, a move aimed at strengthening protections for domestic violence victims.
The changes are being adopted in individual counties after state lawmakers succumbed to opposition from the National Rifle Association over a bill that would apply to the entire state.
The move follows WPLN and ProPublica reporting over the past two years that Tennessee’s lax gun laws and enforcement leave firearms in dangerous hands. The state consistently has one of the highest rates of murder of women by men, and most of those murders are committed with guns. A media analysis found that about one in four domestic violence gun homicide victims was killed by someone who was prohibited from owning a firearm.
In Tennessee, you are not allowed to own a gun if you have been convicted of domestic violence or are the subject of an order of protection. A person ordered to surrender a firearm may hand it over to a third party, such as a friend or relative, for safekeeping. But the state does not require them to reveal who the guns ended up in. Advocates say that makes it difficult to verify that the gun was surrendered and given to someone legally authorized to possess it.
As part of their investigation, WPLN and ProPublica reported on an east Tennessee county that transformed the justice system for domestic violence victims. Scott County’s reform proposal includes a requirement that when courts strip domestic violence perpetrators of guns, they must tell the court in an affidavit who will keep the weapons. The county will also ask for the person’s address and they will be asked to sign an affidavit stating they received the weapon. But the state’s standard gun transfer form does not require these additional liability measures.
” [state’s] “The application is really incomplete,” said Becky Bullard with the Nashville Department of Home Safety. “If we don’t know who gave the gun, we can’t legally take it away.”
At least nine counties, including Tennessee’s two largest counties, Davidson and Shelby, have amended the state’s Gun Ownership Affidavit to require information about who owns a gun. Advocates say other counties are also considering the change.
“When I heard what Scott County was doing, I was shocked,” Shelby County Judge Greg Gilbert said. Shelby County judges adjusted the format of their courts after learning that the courts could conduct their own trials. “People are a little more likely to take this seriously.”
Last year, two Republican lawmakers introduced a bill that would make Scott County’s format the default for other states, but the bill was delayed until 2026 after opposition from the Tennessee Firearms Association and the NRA. Neither association responded to requests for comment at the time. One of the lawmakers who introduced the bill, Knox County Republican Sen. Becky Massey, said her House counterpart, Rep. Kelly Keisling, plans to push the bill again. But Keisling, a Republican whose district includes Scott County, said he is “uncertain about the future of this particular bill.”
This month, advocacy groups for domestic violence victims also asked the State Council on Domestic Violence to recommend adoption of a revised form. That effort failed due to procedural issues. The group plans to revisit the topic at its next meeting in March.
“We don’t have a second to lose. This is a battle we’ve been fighting over format for years,” Bullard said. He has advocated for this reform since the 2018 Waffle House shooting, in which a man traveled with a gun he had been ordered to surrender. “And that can affect someone the next moment.”
