Sheryl Crow, Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Maren Morris & More Sign Letter Seeking ‘Common Sense Gun Safety Legislation’

A month after three nine-year-old children and three adults were murdered at Nashville’s Covenant School in a mass shooting, some of the city’s biggest names have signed a petition imploring the state General Assembly to pass “common sense gun legislation.”

As reported by the Tennessean (story is paywalled), artists including Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Amy Grant, Rodney Crowell, Kelsea Ballerini, Mickey Guyton, Michelle Branch, Shane McAnally, Martina McBride, Maren Morris, Margo Price, Lucinda Williams, Jars of Clay, Jason Isbell, Ben Folds, Allison Moorer and dozens of others sent a letter to the Tennessee General Assembly this week asking legislators to pass extreme risk protection laws (also known as “Red Flag” laws) and to strengthen requirements about the safe storage of firearms.

“Gun violence in Tennessee is not inevitable,” the group said in the letter. “We are not hopeless, and we will not accept inaction. This does not have to be our normal and we ask that you stand with us! We know that gun safety laws work. Policies like extreme risk protection laws and secure storage of firearms can save lives. And we ask that you keep your session open until these policies are put into place.”

Crow and Grant were also reportedly joined by Ruby Amanfu and Will Hoge on Tuesday (April 18) to deliver the letter to state lawmakers before the upcoming scheduled end of the current session.

“We need to put the safety of our children above politics and special interests,” read the group’s letter. “We appreciate Governor Lee taking steps towards creating a safer community against gun violence, however we believe these are only the first steps in improving the safety for our children and Tennesseans. It’s time for you to pass effective measures that will keep guns out of dangerous hands before the shooting starts.”

The nation’s latest mass school shooting has once again led to calls for the passage of common sense gun legislation, with TN Gov. Bill Lee saying last week that he will sign an executive order strengthening background checks for buying firearms in his state as well as calling for the red flag law that would allow emergency court orders allowing police to temporarily confiscate weapons from those deemed a risk to themselves and others.

The Tennessean reported that the term “red flag law” is considered anathema in gun-rights circles, with the National Rifle Association sending out a call to supporters this week asking them to tell their lawmakers that they oppose the kinds of extreme-risk orders that have been passed in such conservative states as Florida, which passed one after the 2019 Parkland School shooting that left 14 students and three adults dead.

“Anything that’s pushed to a later agenda just loses momentum,” Christian singer/songwriter Grant said in a nod to the support for new gun legislation in the wake of the shooting at the private Christian elementary school. “There’s too much pain to lose momentum… As songwriters, there’s not a song when you show up at 10 a.m. — you just talk until the ideas come together. There is a force in communication, especially when it’s a shared goal. By the end of the day, you’ve got a chorus. You actually can create something out of nothing with the right kind of concerted effort, and it can be game-changing.”

The letter came from Voices for a Safer Tennessee, a nonpartisan group formed in the wake of the Covenant shooting that is reportedly heavily lobbying lawmakers behind-the-scenes. In addition to the letter, the group staged an event in Nashville on Tuesday night where thousands of people linked arms to form a human chain that stretched from the Tennessee Capitol to the hospital where victims of the shooting were transported on March 27.

See the list of artists who signed the letter below: