Reporter David Waters with the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis has published a three-part series examining how gun violence has become the leading cause of death of Tennessee children in the decade that lawmakers have been loosening gun restrictions, including doing away with permits, removing incentives for safe storage and protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits.
Below is a transcript of his interview with WKNO.
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (WKNO): This week, the Tennessee General Assembly has convened a special session, in part, because Governor Bill Lee experienced something that a growing number of Tennesseans face: the death of a child from gun violence. One of the governor's family friends was killed in the Covenant School shooting. But his own political party has made selling more guns a priority.
With us today is journalist David Waters with the Institute for Public Service Reporting. He's written a three-part series that connects accessibility to guns in the state with the epidemic of children dying from gun violence. David, thank you for joining us.
DAVID WATERS: Thanks for having me, Chris.
BLANK: Your article seemed to conclude that lawmakers here are directly responsible for what is now the leading cause of death of children in this state. Am I misreading that?
WATERS: I think people can read it in a lot of ways. Is there correlation? Is there causation? I think that's left for readers to decide. I know for sure legislators did not pass any of these easing gun restrictions to increase the number of gun deaths in Tennessee. That would be absurd to think. And I'm sure they had no intention of that happening. But I think it's more than a coincidence that over the past 10 years as they have eased these restrictions on guns, the number of child gun deaths has tripled over that time.
BLANK: Republican lawmakers consistently say guns don't kill people. People kill people. Which kind of makes this whole issue a murder mystery — a whodunit. So I'll ask you: Who done it? Six hundred kids have died in this state in the past decade from bullets. Who is killing all these kids?
WATERS: Well, there's no easy answer for that. And there's no single answer for that. It's actually more than 600. The actual number we don't really know because a lot of these gun deaths are not reported by the media, believe it or not. And there is no single source of information on these gun deaths. So the CDC collects numbers of gun deaths, but there's all kinds of laws — privacy laws and such — that prevent CDC or anybody from revealing personal information about these cases. So, it's definitely over 600, which is more than three times what it started out.
Who's to blame? The case I try to make was that in every single child death, an adult was responsible. There was an adult who passed the law or allowed guns to be more available, more accessible. An adult who loaded the weapon. There was an adult who left the weapon unattended, unlocked up. And in many cases, there were children who found the weapon and fired it thinking they were just playing with a gun. They had no idea what would happen. It's not just any single reason that this happens. But overall, I think the message is that there are too many guns available to too many kids.
BLANK: Yeah, you point out in your articles that Tennessee has become something of a mecca for gun manufacturing. The number one state in the nation for employment in the small arms and ammunition sector. It seems like lawmakers have some incentive to make gun laws as loose as possible.
WATERS: Yeah, I think there's a direct connection there. Back in 2009, after Obama was elected, Tennessee became one of several states that passed what is called a "nullification law." As you remember back then there was a lot of concern that Obama and his administration would take guns away from people. That didn't happen, obviously. But a number of states including Tennessee passed these laws that they called Firearms Acts or Second Amendment acts. And basically they were saying that federal law is null and void in the State of Tennessee.
A lot of gun manufacturers, in the Northeast especially, started looking for greener pastures. Tennessee opened its arms. But we also — 2021 I think it was— the legislature passed a law that eliminated any gun maker liability for what happens to his or her products.
BLANK: Earlier, you questioned whether some of these laws were actually adding to the death of children. I read your articles, David Waters, and I am left with the impression that some of our state's gun laws might actually be designed to sell more guns. I'm thinking about the state law that allows people — and I think we can call them idiots — here to leave guns laying around in their cars. We know that car break-ins have gone up significantly in urban areas from criminals looking for guns. The "idiots" then go out and buy new guns. Criminals use the stolen guns to commit crimes. Fear goes up. People buy more guns. How close are we to our local politicians coming to use the word "conspiracy?"
WATERS: I don't know about the word "conspiracy," but I think there's a direct causation here going on, and I think I'm not the only one saying that. [Memphis] Mayor [Jim]Strickland has said that. Many other people in law enforcement have said, "you've got to stop making it so easy for people to steal guns." Stolen guns from cars have increased tenfold in the state since the law was passed to allow people to carry guns in their cars without permits. Memphis is now number one in the nation in terms of stolen guns from vehicles.
Law enforcement has said up to 40% of the guns stolen from vehicles are used in crimes. They have been able to trace that.
BLANK: What's interesting too is that law enforcement, which tends to be on the conservative side of government, has been promoting stricter gun laws in the state and obviously, in some ways, this is about self-preservation. When there are more guns out there, there are more risks to being a member of law enforcement.
WATERS: And they have said that. They have said that there is more fear now among law enforcement officers. That when they go to a crime scene, or they're called to a some sort of dispute, they're more likely than not to encounter someone who has a gun. And I can't imagine how difficult that must be for them, even though they're armed and they're trained.
Another sort of byproduct of these guns-in-cars laws has been the number of kids who have been killed in cars with their family guns. They are sitting in the backseat and they found a gun in the console, or found a gun under the seat loaded, while the mom or dad was out shopping or out talking to somebody. I was really astounded by the number of children who found a gun while they're sitting in the car start playing, with it and accidentally kill themselves or someone else.
BLANK: David, you once covered religion for the Commercial Appeal. And I wonder if you think there is a moral imperative to address these gun laws that maybe outweighs this political view that guns are merely tools that everybody should be carrying around like an iPhone.
WATERS: Well, I do think there is. I think we all have to look at this issue from the perspective of children first. And we see the number of child gun deaths tripling over the past 10 years. I think there is a legal and moral and political imperative to do something different.
I had a conversation with a former seminary professor — seminary president — and he basically put it in these terms: he said, what's happening with guns in America, basically, he calls it child sacrifice. It's a modern form of child sacrifice.
I do think many people believe the Second Amendment is important and matters, and that we do have a right to carry arms, but I think we also have a responsibility. And I think the courts have said this: we have a responsibility and ability to keep them out of the hands, especially of children.
