In Tennessee churches, a new message: Gun safety

On a hot evening in Columbia, Tennessee, a pastor, a physician, and a Republican gun owner sit together at the front of a church. The topic is a new one for this congregation: solutions to gun violence in Tennessee.

As people trickle in, neighbors wave to each other and shake hands with the mayor and two members of the Tennessee state legislature. The city’s emergency services departments are present in uniform, “to show community support” for the effort, one member says.

The event on July 28, called Faith, Firearms, and Community Safety in Middle Tennessee, is part of an effort to promote discussion in faith spaces of gun safety and education around gun violence in advance of a special legislative session the state’s Republican governor has pledged to call Aug. 21. 

Conversations like the one at First Presbyterian Church have been happening across the Volunteer State this spring and summer. The choice of venue is a deliberate one. In a state where an overwhelming majority of residents identify as Christian, churches are seen as a place where respectful listening is still possible.

Having conversations about gun safety in a church sanctuary could be “a model for civil dialogue,” says the Rev. Sarah Bird Kneff, pastor of the church in Columbia. 

“For so long the church has taken its cues from the culture,” she says. “In the political realm, or in the cultural realm, in society, people are splitting along all of these different divides.”

Churches’ reaction to that division are often to divide themselves, says Ms. Kneff. “But the church could be a place where we actually model ... unity and civil discourse and disagreeing and love, with faith being the undergirding, the foundation of those conversations.”

The level of gun-related crimes and accidents has driven many Tennesseans to events like the panel in the church. And the increase in violence toward houses of faith, including in Tennessee, has prompted some faith leaders to begin carrying firearms and faith centers to hire security teams. Nationally, Evangelical Christians are more likely to own guns than other religious groups. Tennessee is the third-most religious state, and as of 2014 was 81% Christian.

The Covenant School shooting, and its aftermath

For some still reeling from a mass shooting at a private Christian school in March, that faith is a cornerstone. For others, it’s cause for reflection.

“A lot of parents are ... questioning their faith,” says Mary Joyce, whose third grade daughter saw the shooter from her hiding spot at the Covenant School in Nashville. “Others are leaning into it. Others are rediscovering it.”

This week in Memphis, a gunman tried to enter a Jewish school but was prevented from doing so by police. And in March, the Covenant School shooting left six people – including three children – dead. That event was a catalyst for many parents in Nashville to form a group, Voices for a Safer Tennessee, to advocate for gun safety measures. 

Tennessee state politics made national headlines in April after the Republican supermajority expelled two Democratic lawmakers for joining protesters at the state capitol calling for gun safety reform following Covenant. One of the lawmakers, Rep. Justin Jones, who is pursuing his masters in theology, spoke about gun reform the next morning with a group of religious leaders. Over 10,000 clergy, all members of the group Repairers of the Breach, were invited. A little over a week later, hundreds of faith leaders and their congregants marched to the state capitol to protest gun violence and the expulsions of the lawmakers. Within weeks, both Mr. Jones and Justin Pearson were returned to the Legislature by their constituents.

In Nashville, projections are swirling about what – if any – measures will pass during the special session. Expectations, to put it mildly, are modest. But in Columbia, around 85 people sit in the pews of the small Presbyterian church to hear what the panelists have to say.

Voices for a Safer Tennessee plans to hold another discussion in a church in Chattanooga in August. Also starting this month, the group is partnering with a Nashville church to hold early morning coffee and moderated discussions about responsible gun ownership, geared toward gun-owning men. 

Voices, which has grown from 1,000 to 20,000 people in just four months, says that a key part of that outreach is education about responsible gun use. It also focuses on the high rates of gun-related crimes in Tennessee that advocates say stem from illegal and irresponsible use. Extreme risk laws, universal background checks, safe storage laws, and mandated reporting of lost and stolen weapons are the main measures the group would like to see codified.

The first Voices panel in May in a Nashville church reached over 500 people – over 200 of whom were in person, sitting shoulder to shoulder. The church in Columbia, an hour south of Nashville, is much smaller. Still, organizers were pleased with the turnout.

After the discussion ended, Dan McEwen lingered, chatting with friends. The owner of a real estate company in Columbia, he’s a gun owner and calls himself “an avid hunter.” But, he says, he’s also a father of four young children. And that, in particular, builds his desire to see “common sense” solutions. 

This is his second time at a Voices event. While it isn’t Mr. McEwen’s first time having conversations with friends and family about gun safety, those talks only started recently. “We didn’t really have to think about this when I was growing up,” he says, adding that it changed for him when, after the Covenant tragedy, his 9-year-old son cried out of fear of going to school.

“There are some common sense things that Tennesseans – even like guys like me that love guns and [hunting] and all that – there are still some common sense things we can do to keep our kids safe in the future,” says Mr. McEwen, who was interested in the measures Voices proposes.

Holding meetings in churches eases people into the discussion, which quickly focuses on facts and statistics about guns with only contextual references to God or faith. The faith setting offers another angle, that of collective love for and responsibility to one’s community, no matter their faith, says Katherine Merrill, a lawyer who serves as faith community outreach chair for Voices.

“I hope that it provides another place for people to feel like their duty as Christians is to do more than just think about themselves,” says Ms. Merrill. “So much of my constructive and critical thinking goes on in and around my faith.”

“I feel that if we want to put our money where our mouth is and say, ‘let’s take politics out,’ well, where’s the other place besides politics or besides government where, historically, people have addressed very complex topics? Well, that’s their church or their place of worship,” Ms. Merrill says.

And this is, indeed, a complex topic, says Todd Cruse, chairman of Voices and one of the panelists at the Columbia event. 

“Tennessee is a Second Amendment culture state, and, you know, there’s nothing wrong with that,” says Mr. Cruse, a Republican and gun owner himself. Voices for a Safer Tennessee isn’t taking an anti-firearm approach, he says, but rather advocating for “pragmatic, incremental steps that can make meaningful change.”

“The Second Amendment’s there, but there are common sense solutions to problems that exist and challenges that we face that don’t infringe on that culture,” he adds.

Faith communities are a great incubator for the conversation about making gun use safer, says Mr. Cruse. “The level of respect and discourse that occurs when you’re having a conversation ... in a faith based community [means that] … you may not all [agree], but you’re gonna listen. And you know, I think at the end of the day, that’s a good place to start.”

Mr. Cruse – who has worked for a Republican governor and as a lobbyist – says he’s neither an optimist nor a pessimist. He’s a pragmatist. So, while he doesn’t expect instant results, he’s still hopeful that the more people learn about gun crimes and gun safety, the more possible change will be.

“That’s not going to happen all in August,” he says. “If we get one of the three things that we’ve been talking about, that’s a win.”

A poll in May by Vanderbilt University found that 72% of registered voters in Tennessee support red flag laws. Some 62% support safe storage mandates, 50% support banning assault-style rifles, and 82% support Gov. Bill Lee’s April executive order strengthening background checks.

Democratic Rep. Bob Freeman’s goal for the special session can be described as incremental change. The way to make that happen is through outreach, he says, particularly in communities outside of his Nashville district.

State Sen. Joey Hensley, a Republican from Hohenwald, 80 miles outside Nashville, doesn’t expect any firearms legislation to pass in August because of the short timeline. Special sessions called by Governor Lee have never lasted for more than a week.  

Mr. Hensley opposes the emergency protective order bill proposed by Governor Lee, which the senator says lacks due process. Mr. Lee’s proposal would allow law enforcement to determine whether a person poses a threat. A hearing would then be held, and a judge would rule on whether or not to temporarily remove the individual’s firearms for up to 180 days at a time. 

“I want to protect children and do all we can, and protect people’s constitutional right, too,” says Mr. Hensley. 

Holding discussions like the panel event in churches certainly can’t hurt the search for solutions, Mr. Hensley says, though he does think it can be inappropriate for pastors to preach about gun safety. When it comes to firearms, members’ opinions vary more within churches he’s exposed to than opinions on social issues, he says.

A gun-owning pastor on gun safety

For the Rev. William Green, pastor of The Tabernacle of Glory church, which meets on the campus of the American Baptist College in Nashville, protection is a reason to carry. The rise in violence toward churches and the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting were catalysts for Mr. Green to buy his first gun about six years ago. He began encouraging his congregation to carry, as well. He’s organizing a talk for the congregation on de-escalation, given by the owner of a private security company.

Mr. Green, whose household of four now owns eight guns, plans to purchase more. He signed his name alongside more than 140 other faith leaders to an open letter calling for gun safety measures because it aligns with “how and why” he carries.

Mr. Green often asks himself, “How would a compassionate God show up in this space?”

That, he says, and, “How do we minimize human suffering and enhance human well-being?”

When he finds answers to those questions that resonate with him, he trusts his instinct. “For me, the gun reform letter that I signed is a spiritual principle. And all spiritual principles are in harmony, no matter where they come from,” he says.

At the panel event in a Nashville church in May, former Sen. Bill Frist told the Monitor that while passing gun safety measures will not be simple, it is possible in Tennessee.

“I know you can go directly to Tennesseans with a story and they will listen,” says Dr. Frist, who was the senior senator from the state for 12 years. “It has to be outside of political partisanship. It needs to be through places of worship. It needs to be through the medical profession. It needs to be through the communities themselves.”