‘Doing nothing ... is not working.’ Red states pressured on gun violence.

After a string of high-profile shootings in the past few weeks, Southern and Midwestern states, long champions of gun rights, have largely doubled down on these rights. And for the most part, they’ve rejected national efforts to enact red flag laws, which allow authorities to temporarily seize weapons from people in crisis.

But amid this digging in, pressure is growing to do something. However modestly, support is building to reconsider gun safety legislation and increase support for mental wellness in communities – a nod toward feelings among many Americans that government action is needed to help stem the waves of violence touching rising numbers of citizens.

Expanding mental health services is one item, among others, that’s gaining renewed attention in these states. For some lawmakers, such a step is a way to respond to gun violence while steering clear of gun regulation.

“The modern South continues to think that low taxes and small government and personal responsibility are the key, but personal responsibility works for people who are whole and healthy,” says Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “People who are not whole and healthy need to have the arms of their family, their church, their community wrapped around them until they are.”

Among the developments in GOP-led states:

• Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who lost two family friends in the March 27 shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, last week proposed a $200 million spending package aimed in part at boosting the numbers of mental health liaisons in schools. On Tuesday, the Republican governor signed an executive order strengthening background checks for gun purchases and called on lawmakers to pass what he termed an “order of protection law,” widely referred to as a red flag law.

• In February, Indiana’s Senate unanimously passed a bill that would bolster the state’s ongoing mental health initiatives and its implementation of the federal 988 crisis response system. Last week, the legislation advanced unanimously out of the House Public Health Committee. Funding for the bill, however, is still under discussion.

• In the wake of a young shooter killing 19 children and two adults last year at a school in Uvalde, Texas, the state’s top GOP leaders have said they’re focusing on school safety. Last month, House Speaker Dade Phelan announced his support for several bills that take up the issue.

• A gun safety bill got a rare hearing last month in Georgia’s GOP-controlled legislature. Although the bill failed in a House public safety subcommittee, Democratic Rep. Michelle Au, who introduced the measure, still saw progress. “Gun safety legislation traditionally does not get heard in the Georgia state Legislature, so the fact of a hearing at all is a huge first step,” she said, according to the Georgia Recorder.

Clearly, these developments have not taken place on a straight path, with their course instead indicating how controversial it is to make any changes related to gun policy. What they’re up against is this nation’s uniquely strong gun rights culture, underscored this weekend by the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting, which is being held in Indianapolis.  

Thought-provoking remarks

But still, Republican lawmakers across the South and Midwest are beginning to more seriously mull remarks from Jason W. Smith, who has treated victims of the shooting this week at a Louisville, Kentucky, bank. “Doing nothing ... is not working,” said Dr. Smith, of the University of Louisville Hospital, at a Tuesday news conference. The violence, he said, “is just getting out of hand across our city and across this great nation.”

The first 100 days of 2023 have seen 15 mass killings in the United States – the highest number since 2009, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Another measure, by the Gun Violence Archive, also found a significant uptick: 146 mass shootings in 2023 as of April 10, compared with 130 by that time last year. The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as having a minimum of four victims who are either injured or killed; any shooter is not counted in this tally. 

On the other hand, a seminal National Institute of Mental Health study found that only 4% of all violence in the U.S. can be linked to mental illness, thus calling into question the effectiveness of a laser focus on mental health to address gun violence. Yet at the same time, reports have emerged that both the Nashville and Louisville shooters were dealing with mental health issues.

“It’s no surprise that politicians sort of blame mental illness,” says Jeff Temple, director of the Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “It’s a safe way to address the gun problem without talking about the real culprit.”

Red flag laws

Red flag laws have also been a topic of interest after the recent shootings, as they were after the shootings last May in Buffalo, New York; and Uvalde. Later that month Congress passed bipartisan legislation that included incentives for more states to pass red flag laws, but in the months following, no states took up that offer.

Currently 19 states, plus the District of Columbia, have red flag laws on the books. Florida, Virginia, Indiana, and Illinois are among the 19, and Florida has registered the most court-ordered gun surrenders since 2020 – more than 5,800, according to an AP analysis. 

While Governor Lee of Tennessee has cracked open the door for a red flag law in his state, some constituents aren’t satisfied. This week, thousands of Tennesseans gathered outside Nashville’s city hall, some carrying signs demanding that “Bloody Gov. Bill Lee” resign.

For Qiana Naugles, a veteran Nashville teacher, focusing on mental wellness isn’t enough. “If you’re not trying to help get rid of guns, we don’t need to talk,” she says.

For Candice Amich, who works in the English department at Vanderbilt University, the push for mental health funding smacks of politics at a time when Americans are demanding action. 

Yet Ms. Amich agrees that “gun violence reflects the larger social ills. ... So it’s not like the guns themselves are gods. They’re just the tools that are expressing massive social discontent and mental health illness.”

For some in the South and Midwest, the behavioral health issues that can come under the umbrella of mental health treatment are symbolic of a broader decay of faith and values. That may rankle others, but for those holding this view, it’s a central point.

“There is ... a real discussion ... around a changing American culture and the general honest belief that a God-fearing populace maybe doesn’t act the same as one that isn’t as anchored in faith,” says T.J. Litafik, a Kentucky-based political consultant who works for both Democrats and Republicans. “There’s absolute legitimacy to that, but there are ways to approach it that are more realistic than others ​​... and it’s hard to accomplish anything if you keep living in a big echo chamber.”

Carlos Arias, a record shop employee standing near Nashville’s Legislative Plaza during a protest, voices hope that the differences between people can be bridged. When presented with a “gun control versus mental health funding” scenario, he says, “I think it’s a little bit of both. I think both parties – we can really meet in the middle.”