Giving guns to certain mental health patients could become a crime in Tennessee
A crowd of supporters and a few lawmakers erupted in applause and cheers Wednesday as the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee advanced Hermitage Rep. Shaundelle Brooks' bill that would criminalize knowingly giving firearms to someone who recently received inpatient mental health treatment.
Brooks named the bill 'Akilah's Law' in honor of her son Akilah Dasilva, who was one of four killed in a mass shooting at a Nashville Waffle House in 2018.
Brooks, a Democrat, has been lobbying for tighter gun restrictions ever since, and won her seat in the House in November after running on a platform of gun safety advocacy. This is her first session as part of the Tennessee General Assembly.
'Akilah was born here in Nashville, and his life was taken here in Nashville … my son Akilah would still be here with us today if the parents of the perpetrator had followed the instructions of law enforcement, the judicial system and medical professionals who deemed their son unfit to possess a firearm,' Brooks said Wednesday.
'Despite being instructed by each of these oversight agencies to store their firearms safely and not return them to the shooter, the parents knowingly and intentionally disregarded those instructions, broke the law and (were) subsequently held accountable because they resided in another state,' she said.
The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee voted 6-2 to advance the bill to the House's full Judiciary Committee. The bill still faces several hurdles before it can become law.
Brooks said the bill is focused on 'upholding the law and holding those who break the law accountable.'
Travis Reinking of Morton, Illinois was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in February 2022 for killing four people and injuring four others at the restaurant with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Illinois State Police had revoked Reinking's firearm owner's identification card prior to the shooting, requiring Reinking to surrender his guns to his father, Jeffrey Reinking.
Jeffrey Reinking returned the guns to his son, including the assault rifle used in the Waffle House shooting — an act that is illegal in the state of Illinois. The elder Reinking was sentenced to 18 months in prison in Illinois in March 2023.
Aldane Dasilva, Brooks' son, was 12 when his brother Akilah was killed. For years, his family pursued accountability in court.
'The law did not fail us,' Dasilva said. 'It held both parties accountable: the father of the person that took my brother from me was held accountable using the same statute — the bill presented here today — by the courts of Illinois, because he broke the law.'
Tennessee had no such pathway for recourse.
In Tennessee, giving firearms to juveniles or people who are intoxicated are misdemeanor crimes. But Tennessee currently has no law against giving firearms to someone who has been committed for mental health evaluation.
Nashville Assistant District Attorney Jan Norman was one of the prosecutors who prosecuted Travis Reinking for the Waffle House homicides. She testified Wednesday that she remembers talking with Brooks about the Illinois law.
'We were talking about that law and what the punishment was, and I said to her these words: 'Shaundelle, it's not enough. It's not. The punishment is not enough. But thank God he gave him those guns in Illinois, because if that would have happened here in Tennessee, I couldn't have done a thing about it. He wouldn't have been punished at all if it happened in Tennessee,'' Norman said.
Brooks' bill would criminalize the sale, offer of sale, delivery or transfer of a firearm to a person while knowing that the person has been a patient of a mental health institution – voluntarily or involuntarily – within the previous five years. It does not apply to people who were voluntarily admitted for treatment solely for alcohol abuse disorder who have no other secondary mental illnesses or substance abuse disorders.
Nashville-area psychiatrist Eric Zabriskie also testified in favor of the bill. He said firearms were the method used in 67% of the 1,245 deaths by suicide recorded in Tennessee in 2022.
'If we continue to do nothing and take no preventative public mental health measures such as this bill, fewer (people) will make it back into (mental health) treatment, and more will go to the morgue and into the ground instead,' Zabriskie said.
Wednesday's committee meeting fell during a time of remembrance and mourning in Nashville.
Thursday marked the second anniversary of a shooting at The Covenant School that killed 9-year-old students Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus, and William Kinney as well as school headmaster Katherine Koonce, custodian Mike Hill, and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak.
Amid the public outcry for gun law reforms that followed, a 2023 special legislative session of the Tennessee General Assembly called by Gov. Bill Lee ended without the passage of any bills restricting access to guns.
On Tuesday, the Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education honored Antioch High School staff for their actions during a January shooting. Solomon Henderson, 17, opened fire in the school's cafeteria, killing 16-year-old Dayana Escalante and injuring another student before taking his own life.
James Shaw Jr., who wrestled the gun away from Travis Reinking and sustained injuries in the Waffle House shooting, also testified Wednesday in favor of Brooks' bill.
3 kids, 3 adults killed in shooting at Nashville private elementary school
'I've just seen the outcome of (a mass shooting), and I've seen how it could fracture families. I've seen the holes it could make. I could see how the mending doesn't happen. And, as well, I've seen myself the diagnoses that I've had, of having PTSD and having things of that nature,' Shaw said.
'I think it's a step in the right way for some of the other mothers that are here from (Covenant) and from Antioch and from the other shootings that we've had recently here in Nashville,' he continued. 'I think this is a step in the right way, so I'm very supportive of her bill, and I think it will help Nashville push forward and for us to just make laws, good laws, about gun safety and practice.'
Reps. Andrew Farmer (R-Sevierville), William Lamberth (R-Portland)), Lowell Russell (R-Vonore), Rick Scarbrough (R-Oak Ridge), Jason Powell (D-Nashville) and Gabby Salinas (D-Memphis) voted in favor of advancing the bill.
Representatives Fred Atchley (R-Sevierville) and Clay Doggett (R-Pulaski) voted in opposition.
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