in World News Tennessee Passes Landmark Legislation Addressing the Big Pharma Role in Mass Violence and Behavioral Health – AbleChild Leads National Charge for Accountability
Guest post by Audry Hale at AbleChild.
Tennessee Passes Landmark HB 1349/SB 1146 Targeting the Behavioral Health & Big Pharma Industries’ Role in Mass Violence—AbleChild Leads National Charge for Accountability
Nashville, TN — In a historic move to address systemic failures in mental health care and public safety, Tennessee has enacted HB 1349/SB 1146, a groundbreaking law requiring autopsies of suspected mass shooters to include toxicology screenings for psychotropic drugs. The legislation, co-drafted by AbleChild—the nation’s leading nonprofit advocating for informed consent and the right to refuse psychiatric products and services—and Amy Miller, former director of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Reform Pharma initiative, marks a seismic shift in how States confront mass violence.
The Law’s Core Mandate: Shining Light on Hidden Factors
The bill, signed into law on April 10, 2025, mandates toxicology testing for deceased mass shooters who killed four or more individuals, including consultation with their mental health providers. It also calls for University of Tennessee Health Science Center (HSC) studies on interactions between psychotropic drugs and other substances in perpetrators’ systems, and public disclosure of psychotropic drug use by shooters upon request, with personal identifiers redacted.
The law amends Tennessee codes to prioritize transparency over privacy in cases of mass violence, directly challenging pharmaceutical and behavioral health industries to confront potential links between their products and practices and public safety risks.
AbleChild’s National Crusade
AbleChild, a nonprofit with a 25-year history of battling psychiatric overreach and corporate influence, spearheaded the legislation as part of its national campaign to focus on HIPAA exceptions for perpetrators of mass violence, ensuring public access to critical drug histories, expose conflicts of interest between mental health organizations and pharmaceutical funding and combat off-label prescribing and unsafe psychotropic drug use in vulnerable populations, including children in foster care.