TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Oct 8, 2025

Five Tennessee cities have some of the highest rates of gun violence in the nation according to a new report from the nonprofit Community Justice. According to WPLN, the group’s 2025 Violence Prevention Index ranked Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville among the nation’s highest for gun violence but noted some progress in tackling contributing factors such as housing insecurity and lack of access to mental health resources. The report comes after the Trump administration cut $145 million in Department of Justice grants for community violence intervention programs. Memphis was the only Tennessee city to show major improvement since last year's assessment. The improvement was credited to a new Office of Neighborhood Safety and expanded victim services and school-based violence prevention programs.