Every month, more than 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner in the United States.
Tennessee has a law that is meant to remove guns from domestic abusers—but right now, there is a dangerous loophole with how our courts are implementing that law.
Domestic abusers are supposed to give their firearms to a responsible third party. The problem is, Tennessee courts do not have to collect information on who domestic abusers are relinquishing their guns to.
This means there is no check ensuring domestic abusers are actually forfeiting their guns.
Thankfully, this can be fixed—but the Tennessee Domestic Violence State Coordinating Council, the agency tasked with creating domestic violence-related intervention programs, and county courts need to hear from residents like you.
Sign the petition NOW to urge Tennessee courts to fix their domestic violence relinquishment form >>
To the Domestic Violence State Coordinating Council and county courts:
Tennessee law mandates that domestic abusers give up their guns, but the state does not require them to disclose the person who takes possession of those guns. This dangerous gap in documentation limits the state's ability to adequately ensure that the guns are, in fact, out of the hands of abusers. But both the Domestic Violence State Coordinating Council (DVSCC) and county courts can address this loophole by updating the paperwork to require the identity of any third party that has taken possession of these relinquished firearms. And we are calling on them to do just that, especially given that, according to a 2024 brief from the Nashville Metro Office of Family Safety:
- Tennessee ranks 11th in the nation for the rate at which men murder women.
- Abusers' likelihood of murder increases 5x with access to a gun and 20x if they threaten or abuse with a gun.
- In 2024, 60% of IPV homicides in Nashville were committed with firearms. And in 33% of cases, the abuser was prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm.
Pursuant to §36-3-625 and §39-13-111, a person subject to an order of protection or convicted of a domestic violence crime must give up possession of their firearms within 48 hours. They have the option to transfer these firearms to a third party, such as a friend or family member, who is legally allowed to possess them. However, the state does not require that domestic violence firearms dispossession forms include the identity of that third party. Without this crucial information, authorities cannot verify that the firearms have in fact been relinquished properly. This leaves open the dangerous possibility that domestic abusers are actually keeping their firearms.
Pursuant to §36-3-625(e), the DVSCC, in conjunction with the administrative office of the courts, develops the statewide firearms dispossession affidavit and can therefore mandate the inclusion of this information. Alternatively, county courts can require the disclosure of this information in their own jurisdictions; indeed, multiple counties have already done so. Scott County led the way and now requires a written affidavit disclosing who is going to take custody of these weapons, the address of that person, and an additional sworn statement from that person attesting that they have received the weapons. Amending this form to include this identifying information of the third party is crucial to enforcing this mandate meant to protect domestic violence victims from further harm.
We are calling on the DVSCC, or on individual county courts, to update the current affidavit of firearms dispossession form to require identification of the third party holding a domestic abuser's firearms, so that authorities can have the tools to create a clear path to ensuring that abusers actually relinquish their guns.