Tennessee gun safety group takes heat for donations to top Republicans

A Tennessee gun safety reform group that arose in the wake of the 2023 Covenant School shooting drew sharp criticism this week after a recent campaign finance filing showed the group's political action committee donated heavily to Republican leadership in the Tennessee General Assembly.

Voices for a Safer Tennessee donated $42,500 to seven House and Senate Republicans in June, including a $10,000 donation to House Speaker Cameron Sexton's PAC and $15,000 to Lt. Gov. Randy McNally's PAC.

In the same time period, the group gave $12,500 to five Democratic lawmakers and each chamber's Democratic caucus. House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, and Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, both received the highest Democratic donations at $2,500 each, in addition to Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Nashville. Voices reported a $1,000 contribution to Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, on June 12.

However, Campbell said she never received it and rejected the donation on Thursday over concerns about Voices' contribution strategy.

"Safer TN’s affiliated PAC wrote a check to Senator Campbell on June 12, 2024. Regrettably, the check was not delivered, which was an error on the part of our organization," a Voices spokesperson said Friday. "We are appreciative of Senator Campbell’s longstanding and continued support of firearm safety in Tennessee. We will amend our disclosure to reflect the discrepancy."

The group's donations to Republican lawmakers, particularly on the House side, drew condemnation on social media from both donors and Democratic lawmakers in the wake of GOP resistance, if not outright hostility, to calls for increased gun restrictions and gun safety reform supported by a bipartisan majority of Tennesseans.

The backlash on Wednesday led Voices for a Safer Tennessee to post a public statement which cited "important progress" made on "meaningfully" blocking gun access for some dangerous individuals, in addition to citing their effort in blocking a proposed bill the would have allowed open carry of long guns in public places. The General Assembly passed two laws that took effect this month to block some criminal suspects deemed mentally incompetent from owning or purchasing firearms, in addition to blocking some juveniles charged with certain crimes from owning or buy guns until they're 25.

"Since its inception, Safer TN has clearly communicated and demonstrated its approach of working with the entirety of the Tennessee General Assembly to advance its mission," the group said in a statement on Wednesday. "We thoughtfully navigate the realities of our political landscape, which currently includes a Republican supermajority in both chambers, in our efforts. Funds distributed from Safer TN’s affiliated PAC are consistent with this approach, with contributions being made to members and leaders of both political parties."

Voices launched in the weeks following the devastating Covenant shooting with the group taking care to highlight its nonpartisan nature, though former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, a Republican, and former GOP staff members have worked closely with the group.

In May, it announced it had raised more than $1.3 million in its first year, and has staffed up with a full-time director and contracted lobbyists. Its yard signs pepper many Nashville neighborhoods, with well-heeled attendance at fundraisers in wealthy areas of the city and among many supporters who have traditionally identified as Republicans. The group has also stressed it views gun reform shifts in Tennessee as a long-term game. In some ways, it has also held itself apart from other groups in the gun reform advocacy space as increasingly vocal advocates have publicly clashed with GOP lawmakers over the past year.

Its June donations highlight the political realities of Tennessee's ongoing supermajority, as Republicans continue to hold all the cards and Democrats have little chance to materially effect the makeup of the legislature in the upcoming election cycle, even with a few competitive seats up for grabs.

With gerrymandered districts and scant competition from the left, the GOP's main competition continues to arise from its right flank, leading candidates to hammer each other in Republican primaries on right-wing bona fides even as repeated public polling shows large majorities of Tennesseans would support gun reform policies such as red flag laws.

Though Voices appears to be banking on a long-game of pushing GOP leadership to align more closely with public sentiment in Tennessee, gun reform advocates and Democrats on Wednesday scoffed at the notion.

Campbell called the GOP donations a "kick in the teeth" to people who have fought for safer gun laws since before Covenant. House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said "lighting their donors’ money on fire would have been more productive."

"Just to be clear- they're funding the problem," Campbell said in a social media statement on Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee gun safety group takes heat for donations to top Republicans