Guns, Policy, and Politics: An Examination of Potential Firearm Legislation Initiatives for the State of Tennessee

Abstract

Firearm violence has been a widespread and costly public health epidemic in the United States during the last few decades with death counts approaching nearly 40,000 per year. In the wake of recent mass shootings, debates surrounding gun control have become hyper-polarized and fraught with misinformation. This thesis evaluates four policy proposals: universal background checks, assault weapons bans, permit to purchase legislation, and safe storage laws using a scoping review methodology to assess popular rhetorical arguments for and against each policy, as well as peer-reviewed literature to determine if each policy is politically feasible in the state of Tennessee. Recommendations were informed by political feasibility analysis (Webber, 1986) and aimed to incorporate the arguments from gun control advocates and gun rights advocates, the peer-reviewed literature on the policies, and polling data from Tennesseans.