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nashville shooting
Days After Reinstatement, Justin Jones Files 'Protect Kids Not Guns Act'
"Action can't wait," said the Tennessee Democrat. "This comprehensive legislation will enact commonsense gun policies already working in other states to reduce gun deaths."
Apr 14, 2023
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones on Thursday filed legislation that would impose stricter regulations on firearm and ammunition ownership, upholding his vow to continue fighting for gun control following the Republican vote to expel him from his seat.
Jones, who was unanimously reinstated by the Nashville Metropolitan Council on Monday, said he introduced the "Protect Kids Not Guns Act" alongside Democratic state Sen. Charlane Oliver "because action can't wait."
"This comprehensive legislation will enact commonsense gun policies already working in other states to reduce gun deaths and make it harder for everyday people to possess military-grade assault weapons," Jones wrote on Twitter.
The legislation comes after Jones and fellow Democratic Rep. Justin Pearson—who was also expelled and subsequently reinstated—showed solidarity with Tennesseans who gathered inside the state House chamber late last month to demand action against gun violence following a deadly mass shooting in Nashville.
The Newtown Action Alliance, a group formed in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, applauded Jones and Oliver for "honoring the Covenant School victims with action."
Jones and Oliver's bill would, among other changes, ban the possession of large-capacity magazine, defined as "an ammunition-feeding device with capacity to accept more than 10 rounds." The Nashville shooter, who killed three young children and three adults at a Nashville Christian school last month, fired more than 150 rounds in a matter of minutes.
The new legislation would also add restrictions on who can sell guns and require that Tennesseans under an extreme risk protection order—meaning they're deemed a threat to themselves or others—immediately surrender all firearms and ammunition in their possession as well as any handgun carry permit to Tennessee authorities.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, indicated earlier this week that he broadly supports the latter change, asking state legislators to "bring forward an order of protection law."
"A new, strong order of protection law will provide the broader population cover, safety, from those who are a danger to themselves or the population," Lee said.
It's far from clear, however, that the Republican-dominated Legislature will act on the governor's request, let alone approve gun control measures proposed by Jones, Oliver, and other Democratic lawmakers.
As The Tennessean noted on Tuesday: "Republican lawmakers in recent years have broadened access to firearms. Some Republicans this session attempted to expand a permit-less carry measure to long guns prior to the Covenant shooting, a move sharply criticized by Democrats."
"Democrats announced a legislative slate on April 5 in response to the Covenant shooting," the newspaper reported. "The Democratic legislation includes a proposed ban on bump stock conversion kits and high-capacity magazines... Senate Bill 1564 would allow family members and law enforcement to petition a civil court for an extreme risk protection order, which would allow law enforcement to temporarily remove weapons from a person deemed a risk to themselves or others."
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'A Very Dark Day for Tennessee': House GOP Expels Democrats Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson
Jones warned just before the vote that expelling him "will signal to the nation that there is no democracy in this state" and "if it can happen here in Tennessee, it's coming to your state next."
Apr 06, 2023
Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday voted to expel Reps. Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, two of three Democrats who recently interrupted a floor session with chants for gun control in the wake of the deadly Covenant School shooting in Nashville.
"This is a historic day for Tennessee, but... it may mark a very dark day for Tennessee because it will signal to the nation that there is no democracy in this state," Jones (D-52) said just before he was officially ousted in a 72-25 vote by the Republican-controlled chamber. "It will signal to the nation that if it can happen here in Tennessee, it's coming to your state next—and that is why the nation is watching us, what we do here."
"What happened today in Tennessee is a disgrace. Overturning the will of voters because you disagree with the representatives they have elected is disenfranchisement plain and simple."
After ousting Jones, the Tennessee House GOP moved on to the resolution targeting Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-13), who is white. That vote was 65-30, falling short of the two-thirds majority required to expel her. Republicans then turned to the measure to force out Pearson (D-86).
In the vote against Pearson, who like Jones is Black, the result was 69-26 in favor of removal and his seat was taken.
Asked by reporters after her vote why she was spared expulsion while Jones was not, Johnson responded: "I'll answer your question; it might have to do with the color of our skin."
In the wake of Thursday's three expulsion votes, Stand Up America's executive director Christina Harvey said: "What happened today in Tennessee is a disgrace. Overturning the will of voters because you disagree with the representatives they have elected is disenfranchisement plain and simple."
"In a democracy," Harvey continued, "no leader should be removed from office for standing up for their constituents, especially in the wake of tragedy. This political stunt sets a dangerous precedent, leaving over 135,000 Tennessee residents, many of whom are Black, without any representation in the state House until new members are appointed or elected. The MAGA legislators who perpetrated this injustice are unworthy of calling themselves public servants."
During the proceedings, all three Democrats were given an initial 20 minutes to defend themselves against the Republican expulsion resolutions, which were followed by questions from other lawmakers and closing remarks.
"What we see today is a lynch mob assembled to not lynch me but our democratic process."
The room was "silent as Jones took the podium, but just outside the chamber doors, a crowd of protestors screamed cheers of support," The Tennessean reports. "As Jones spoke in his own defense, they began chanting: 'Go Justin go!'"
Protesters who gathered at the Tennessee State Capitol in support of Jones, Johnson, and Pearson could sometimes be heard throughout the proceedings.
Watch the proceedings:
"The world is watching Tennessee," Jones said on the floor, "because what is happening here today is a farce of democracy."
"What we see today is just a spectacle," he continued, noting that Republicans have already signaled their intention to expel them. "What we see today is a lynch mob assembled to not lynch me but our democratic process. But it will not stand."
Directly addressing the Republicans advocating expulsion, Jones declared that "we called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy. That is why the nation is watching you today."
"This is not about expelling us as individuals," he stressed, pointing to public demands for gun control. "This is your attempt to expel the voice of the people from the people's House, and it will not be successful."
The GOP effort the expel the trio has been condemned across Tennessee and the United States, with hundreds of legislators from other states, national rights leaders, and even the White House denouncing the campaign as undemocratic.
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Nearly 270 State Lawmakers Denounce 'Anti-Democratic' Expulsion Effort by Tennessee GOP
"There is nothing 'disorderly' about courageously standing in solidarity with the people we are elected to serve, in opposition to the gun lobby that continues to profiteer off of an epidemic they have fueled," reads a letter signed by 267 lawmakers.
Apr 06, 2023
Lawmakers from 35 states on Thursday signed a letter condemning the Tennessee Republican Party as it prepared to expel three Democratic representatives who joined a protest demanding gun control legislation in the State Capitol, with the letter accusing the state GOP of racist and "anti-democratic" conduct.
Tennessee Reps. Gloria Johnson (D-13), Justin Jones (D-52), and Justin Pearson (D-86) joined Nashville students and their supporters on Monday as they poured into the Capitol building, demanding that lawmakers ban weapons like the ones used in a mass shooting at a Christian school in the city last week, which killed three children and three adults, and pass other broadly popular gun control legislation.
Republicans have accused the three Democrats of bringing "disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives" by speaking without recognition during a protest on the chamber's floor last week, a technical violation of the House rules, and of taking part in an "insurrection."
"There is nothing 'disorderly' about courageously standing in solidarity with the people we are elected to serve, in opposition to the gun lobby that continues to profiteer off of an epidemic they have fueled," reads the letter. "The Tennessee State Capitol is the people's house, and Representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson exemplified leadership on the House floor this week by standing up for what's right. Any attempts to silence these elected leaders for exercising their constitutional right to protest are anti-democratic."
The Republicans passed three resolutions to hold votes on expelling the lawmakers on Monday, with each passing 72-23 on a party line vote. The vote on expulsion is expected to take place Thursday.
The letter, organized by the State Innovation Exchange (SiX), accused the GOP of exemplifying the "robust and racist connection between fighting against gun safety and dismantling our democracy." Pearson and Jones are Black, and the lawmakers pointed out that people of color are disproportionately impacted by gun violence in the United States.
"Let's be clear, the vote to expel Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson is just another anti-democratic effort to silence the American people for speaking out against the devastating consequences of gun violence," said Neha Patel, co-executive director of SiX. "Calling for gun safety within the people's house is an example of our democracy in action, expelling lawmakers for standing for what they believe in is not."
"Gun violence impacts all of us, especially the Black and brown communities many legislators in Tennessee represent," she added. "Ultimately, these kinds of actions present clear and present danger to our country and our democracy, and we must not allow it."
March for Our Lives, the national group that was formed in 2018 by survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting, announced it would hold a rally outside the State Capitol on Thursday in support of the Johnson, Jones, and Pearson.
"We will not be silenced or intimidated," said advocacy group Gen Z for Change, addressing state Republicans. "As elected officials, your power is derived from the people and we will make it painfully obvious when you decide to work against us."
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'Our Blood, Your Hands': Students Stage National Walkout to Demand Gun Control
"We're determined to be the last school shooting generation," asserted protest organizer Students Demand Action.
Apr 05, 2023
Students across the United States walked out of their classrooms Wednesday to take part in a nationwide protest demanding gun control legislation amid relentless shootings that have already claimed more than 10,000 lives in a little over three months this year.
Wednesday's National School Walkout followed a smaller demonstration Monday in Nashville, Tennessee, where six people including three 9-year-old children were shot dead last week at the Covenant School.
"We've grown up in the midst of America's gun violence crisis. In fact, we've been called the 'school shooting generation,'" protest organizer Students Demand Action explained. "Now we're rising up and organizing in our high schools, colleges, and communities across the country to demand action to end gun violence."
Among those participating in Wednesday's walkout were a group of students from Uvalde High School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and three adults including the shooter were killed during a May 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary School.
The teens chanted slogans including "our blood, your hands" as they walked off campus and marched downtown.
"If people do not start walking out, do not try to start making change, nothing will, and we want change," one student told the San Antonio Express-News. "We're tired of being scared."
Javier Casares, whose 9-year-old daughter Jackie was murdered at Robb Elementary School, told the Express-News he thinks Wednesday's walkout was "something awesome."
"I think we should be seeing this here all over the world," he said, "and I wish more students would have the courage to do so."
In New York City, one student protester said that "it's unfair for little kids to be paranoid all the time coming to school when school's supposed to be... a safe space for you to learn."
Another New York demonstrator said that "it's not fair how people are banning some books and not guns."
In Memphis, Tennessee, students shouted "no more silence, no more gun violence" as they rallied outside White Station High School.
"We have to stand up. We have to change the legislation. We have to have safety," said White Station 12th grader Presley Spiller, an organizer of the rally. "We cannot have academics if we are not safe."
In Boulder, Colorado—where a gunman armed with an AR-15 rifle massacred 10 people in a supermarket in 2021—students rallied outside of the county courthouse and chanted, "Hey, hey, NRA, how many kids did you kill today?"
"We don't want to be killed. We don't want to be a face in the newspaper," Boulder High School sophomore Alex Berk told The Denver Post.
Eliana Monahan, another Boulder sophomore, told the paper that "we shouldn't be afraid to go to school and get killed."
"We had a scare a few months ago where we thought there was going to be a school shooting," Monahan added, "and that shouldn't be a fear that we have, that our friends and teachers are gonna get shot."
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Bishop Barber Rebukes Tennessee GOP for Bid to Oust Democratic Lawmakers
"Let's be clear—Republican extremists in the Tennessee Legislature want to silence the voices of dead children."
Apr 05, 2023
Poor People's Campaign co-chair Bishop William J. Barber II on Wednesday stood in solidarity with three Democratic Tennessee state lawmakers facing a Republican-led expulsion effort over protesting for gun reform on the House floor after last week's Nashville elementary school massacre.
"Let's be clear—Republican extremists in the Tennessee Legislature want to silence the voices of dead children," Barber tweeted. "They are impeding three brave legislators, who articulate the concerns of millions, because they aim to keep families whose children were murdered unseen and unheard."
"The blood of murdered children cries out for us, and extremist Tennessee Republicans are content to ignore them."
Republican leadership in the Tennessee House of Representatives began the process of expelling state Reps. Justin Jones (D-52), Gloria Johnson (D-90), and Justin Pearson (D-86) on Monday. The Democrats used a bullhorn to lead chants supporting gun control legislation on the chamber floor while thousands of Nashville-area students rallied outside following the March 27 mass shooting at Covenant School that left three 9-year-old students, three staff members, and the shooter dead.
Noting that Jones, Johnson, and Pearson each represent more than 70,000 Tennesseans, Barber said the lawmakers are "standing on the principles of democracy, freedom of speech and debate, and the right to redress of grievances."
"Expelling them is an attempt to expel the voices of the people," he added.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-25) compared the actions of lawmakers and protesters to the deadly January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection, arguing that "if this is not what rises to the level of expulsion then tell me what does."
In an interview with WATE, Pearson retorted: "The thousands of children and adults who marched outside of the people's House are not insurrectionists. My walk, my colleagues' walk to the House floor, was in a peaceful and civil manner, and it was not an insurrection."
Speaking on CNN Wednesday morning, Jones called the effort to oust him and his colleagues "morally insane."
"It's very concerning and it represents a clear and present danger to democracy all across this nation that should trouble us all," Jones added.
Johnson told WKRN Tuesday that "we have had admitted child molesters on the floor, we have had members that have peed in each other's office chairs, we have someone who has illegally prescribed drugs to their cousin-mistress and nothing ever happened to those folks."
"It was really just about 20 seconds of us talking at the mic before it was cut and before recess was called," she added. "Never in a million years did we imagine that they would try to expel members in the body for speaking for their constituents when we had not been allowed to do that previously in the day."
The besieged lawmakers' plight has drawn the attention of national Democratic figures. In a Tuesday media briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre argued that "by doing what they're doing with these three Democratic legislators, they're shrugging in the face of yet another tragic school shooting while our kids continue to pay the price."
A two-thirds vote is required to expel a member of the Tennessee House, which is currently composed of 75 Republicans and 24 Democrats. The vote is slated for Thursday.
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Bernice King Urges Permanent School Strike Until Assault Weapons Ban Is Passed
"It should not have to take this kind of effort, but we're living in times where what my father did, which was to really sacrifice their very lives, sacrifice their job, sacrifice their home, sacrifice everything—we're right back at that place."
Apr 04, 2023
Rights advocate Bernice King, a daughter of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, expressed hope on the 55th anniversary of her father's assassination Tuesday that U.S. students leading gun control demonstrations will take inspiration from civil rights protesters who forced change through prolonged direct action.
King applauded more than 7,000 students in Nashville who marched to the Tennessee State Capitol on Monday, condemning Republican lawmakers who have claimed anti-LGBTQ+ laws will "protect" the state's children while refusing to take up gun control legislation after the mass shooting last month at the Covenant School, which killed three children and three adults.
"This issue that they're standing tall in is well past being addressed," King told The Hill on Tuesday.
The group Students Demand Action is also organizing a nationwide school walkout for Wednesday.
"The only thing that I wish, and I've said this before across the nation as I've talked to different audiences, I wish there was a way to really organize them in a way that their walkout is not a day, but it's the Montgomery bus protests, that we refuse to return to school until there is some significant legislation that bans assault weapons," King said.
"I wish there was a way to really organize them in a way that their walkout is not a day, but it's the Montgomery bus protests, that we refuse to return to school until there is some significant legislation that bans assault weapons."
King's father was one of the leaders of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott that lasted from December 5, 1955 until December 20, 1956, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the city to integrate its buses.
Public pressure from groups including Students Demand Action and March for Our Lives has been credited with pushing legislators to pass the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included "enhanced" background checks for gun purchasers under age 21, funding for states to implement red flag laws, and provisions to stop interstate gun trafficking.
States have also passed dozens of gun control laws in recent years, but gun violence nonetheless surpassed car accidents last year as the leading cause of death for American children.
Researchers at New York University calculated last year that the risk of a person dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower when the 1994 federal assault weapons ban was in effect until 2004.
"My father was assassinated with a rifle that would be the equivalent of what we call assault weapons today, and 55 years later we're just increasing the access to these instruments," King told The Hill. "The issue is, these are deadly instruments, and we should not have them in society."
King's call for permanent school walkouts until lawmakers pass far-reaching gun control came as Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Illinois—the site of another mass shooting last year—went into lockdown due to reports that a student had a gun. The student body had participated in a walkout in solidarity with Nashville children earlier in the day.
After a mass shooting that killed 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas last May, Atlantic editor Gal Beckerman also urged a permanent school strike until the demands of the 63% of Americans who support an assault weapons ban are met.
"I'm left with one conclusion: The children and parents of our country need to take the summer to organize locally, build a set of national demands, and then refuse to go back to school in the fall until Congress does something," Beckerman wrote, explaining how the strike could force action:
One thing we've learned from the pandemic is that when children aren't in school, society strains. This would make a strike an extremely powerful form of leverage. A walkout with enough students involved and taking place over days, not minutes, puts concrete pressure on officials, from the municipal level all the way up to Washington. When students aren't in school, parents have difficulty getting to work. Suddenly understaffed services—hospitals, subways—suffer the consequences. Politicians and local officials have a mess on their hands—children falling behind in learning, parents overloaded—and a strong incentive to accede to a demand.
Republican policymakers this week have shown little tolerance for direct action by rights advocates. The Tennessee GOP filed resolutions to expel three Democrats who joined young protesters on Monday, and two Florida Democratic leaders were arrested for protesting a proposed six-week abortion ban.
"It should not have to take this kind of effort, but we're living in times where what my father did, which was to really sacrifice their very lives, sacrifice their job, sacrifice their home, sacrifice everything," said King. "We're right back at that place."
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Chants of 'Fascists!' Ring Out as Tennessee GOP Moves to Expel Dems Over Gun Control Protest
"We'll not be intimidated," wrote one of the Tennessee Democrats facing expulsion. "THE PEOPLE are demanding we act to stop kids from being murdered in school."
Apr 04, 2023
Tennessee House Republicans on Monday initiated the process of expelling three Democratic lawmakers who joined protesters in demanding stricter gun laws following the Nashville mass shooting that left three young children and three adults dead.
Days after last week's shooting, thousands of demonstrators flooded the Tennessee state Capitol to decry GOP lawmakers' inaction in the face of deadly gun violence. Inside the House chamber, Democratic Reps. Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson, and Justin Pearson took to the podium with a bullhorn and led demonstrators in chants supporting gun control legislation.
As The Tennessean reported, Tennessee House Republicans cast the trio's actions as an "insurrection" and, at the end of Monday's session, "introduced three expulsion resolutions" claiming that the three Democrats "did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions."
A vote on the resolutions is expected on Thursday. "Democrats will have little power to block expulsions," The Tennessean noted.
The Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators said in a statement that "this political retribution is unconstitutional and, in this moment, morally bankrupt."
"The people who elected us are calling for meaningful action to end gun violence and the people have a right to be heard through their duly elected representatives," the statement added.
While the House moved to schedule the vote, demonstrators inside the chamber chanted "Fascists!"—to which Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton responded by ordering the galleries cleared and calling on state troopers to remove protesters.
"Media forced out at as well," tweeted Jones, who—along with Johnson—has already been stripped of his committee assignments. Jones said a Republican lawmaker shoved him and grabbed his phone as he was recording a video of demonstrations inside the chamber on Monday.
"This is a sad day for Tennessee," he wrote.
The GOP-controlled Legislature's expulsion efforts came after thousands of Nashville students walked out of their classrooms earlier Monday to demand action on gun violence, which is now the leading cause of death for children in the United States—a country with more guns than people.
Far from backing gun control legislation, Tennessee Republicans have sought to make firearms even more readily accessible in recent years. The New York Times reported last week that Tennessee lawmakers "have passed a series of measures that have weakened regulations, eliminating some permit requirements and allowing most residents to carry loaded guns in public, open or concealed, without a permit, training, or special background checks."
Facing expulsion, the Democratic trio in Tennessee has continued to voice solidarity with those rallying for change in the streets and at the state Capitol.
Pearson, one of Tennessee's youngest lawmakers, told a local media outlet that "the thousands of children and adults who marched outside of the People's House are not insurrectionists."
"My walk, my colleagues' walk to the House floor was in a peaceful and civil manner, and it was not an insurrection,” Pearson said, pushing back on the state GOP's characterization of the protests.
Jones, who like Pearson took office earlier this year, vowed Monday that "we'll not be intimidated."
"THE PEOPLE are demanding we act to stop kids from being murdered in school," Jones wrote on Twitter.
This story has been updated with a statement from the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators.
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If Only We Loved Our Children as Much as Our Assault Weapons
Failure no longer feels inevitable. A new America, one no longer known as the shooting gallery of the world, is starting to seem possible—but only if we demand it.
Mar 30, 2023
Most people, if asked, will say the welfare of their children is their highest priority. For many, however, the position they take on gun control, and particularly on banning assault weapons, suggests their highest priority is actually their guns. Week after week, the headlines blare as the young bodies, literally blown into pieces, are dispatched to the cold earth. Conservative politicians offer thoughts and prayers, usually followed by lies and misdirection. It’s not the guns, they insist. The secret to solving gun violence is treating mental illness, or hardening schools as potential targets, or maybe arming teachers and good guys with guns. Big guns, little guns. Black guns, blue guns. And always their answer is more guns not less.
Do they actually believe this? For many, probably not. But better to pretend that guns are an agent for good than to admit they care more about their guns than their children’s safety, because if guns aren’t a higher priority for them than their children, why are they unwilling to give up their assault weapons given the danger such guns pose to children?
And it isn’t just any guns that will do. To the true aficionado, shotguns, hunting rifles, even handguns aren’t good enough. They demand more firepower — guns that can kill people by the scores in a matter of seconds. Weapons of war that literally blow a human body apart. Weapons with no use in civilian life other than as the means of mass human slaughter.
Meanwhile, children keep dying, or, in the case of the “lucky ones,” survive but then be traumatized for a lifetime. In 2022 there were 51 school shootings that resulted in death or injury. 140 people were killed or injured. So far in 2023, the last time I checked, there had already been 13 school shootings with deaths or injuries. Almost one a week and yet we don’t act. Even when it’s elementary school children who are butchered, still we don’t act.
That the guns themselves are the problem is beyond debate. 43,000 Americans are killed by guns each year. Living in America means you are 25 times more likely to be killed in a gun-related homicide than in other advanced nations. No other industrialized nation has as many guns as America. But then you already knew that. Anyone who pays the slightest attention to the world around them knows it. How could you avoid knowing it when just about every week brings another school shooting — and a new collection of broken lives?
I started writing this article soon after the elementary-school shooting at Covenant School in Nashville. For a time, I wondered if the news cycle might move on before I could complete it, making it untimely. But I quickly realized that could never happen. Because there’s always a new school shooting, and with it a new brief spurt of publicity about the gun problem. And then, as always, we move on with nothing having changed.
This seemingly endless cycle of failure to respond to gun violence feeds upon itself, creating a sense of hopelessness. As gun deaths, including those at schools, keep happening, they begin to look inevitable. Meaningful gun reform starts to feel like a pipe dream. Even the Democratic Party, after solidly supporting gun control through the 1980s and 1990s, largely abandoned the issue in the first decade of the new century. The party leadership felt gun control was hurting the party with rural voters. Democrats didn’t become fully engaged on the issue again until fairly recently, but at least they are largely now in the fight. And the Republicans? Thoughts and prayers.
Given the political realities of the day, including a Supreme Court ready to cut the legs out from under any serious attempt to limit guns, change won’t happen easily or quickly. But there’s still reason for optimism. The voter rolls are increasingly being filled by a new generation of voters. These young people grew up under the specter of gun violence. They experienced what it’s like to go through “active shooter drills.” The only world they’ve ever known is one in which they could never feel completely safe even in their own schools: schools where the unfathomable was always far to easy to fathom. Where every loud sound — a trash can knocked over, a heavy door slamming shut — sounds like a shot being fired.
It was members of this generation who saved the bacon of some members of Congress on January 6, because they had been taught in school how to respond when a building is attacked. The new three Rs of education — reading, writing, and riding out school shootings. As the Washington Post reported, “For many of the Hill’s younger staff members, the decision to take those actions wasn’t instinct — it was training. An entire generation of Americans who grew up during an epoch of horrific school shootings have learned since kindergarten what to do when an outside threat enters the building.”
The evidence is actually somewhat mixed as to whether young people today favor gun control in numbers greater than their elders. But favorable poll numbers have never been the most important thing in the politics of gun control. The intensity of support is what really matters. For decades the NRA was able to fight off most gun control measures despite a substantial majority of Americans favoring them. They could pull this off largely because the intensity of opponents of gun control was greater than that of those who favored it. Gun control opponents actually voted on the issue, whereas voters who favored gun control mostly cast their ballot based upon other issues.
But that is changing. Indeed, the politics of gun control finally seems to be shifting in general. The NRA, a victim of its own corruption, is struggling to survive. Inadequate, but meaningful, gun control legislation was actually passed in Congress and signed into law by the president, something unthinkable just a few years ago. State governments under Democratic control are taking action of their own. Even a few Republicans are jumping on board. Recognition of the scope of the gun problem is rising. Even that all-important factor of the intensity of support for change seems to be increasing. Failure no longer feels inevitable. A new America, one no longer known as the shooting gallery of the world, is starting to seem possible.
But it will be possible only if we demand it — demand it with our voices, but even more, with our votes.Keep ReadingShow Less
'We're Not Gonna Fix It,' Says GOP Congressman After Nashville Mass Shooting
Rep. Tim Burchett's response to the leading killer of U.S. children stands in stark contrast to his zeal for banning drag shows: "Dadgummit, we don't put up with that crap in Tennessee."
Mar 28, 2023
U.S. Congressman Tim Burchett was accused of saying "the quiet part out loud" after the Tennessee Republican responded to the massacre in Nashville on Monday by arguing there's not much Congress can do to prevent mass shootings.
Speaking to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol Monday afternoon following the murder of three 9-year-old children and three staff at the Covenant School in Nashville, Burchett lamented the deaths and said "it's a horrible, horrible situation."
But "we're not gonna fix it," he added, referring to U.S. mass shootings. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have already been 130 such shootings this year.
"Criminals are gonna be criminals," Burchett continued. "My daddy fought in the Second World War, fought in the Pacific, fought the Japanese, and he told me, he said buddy... if somebody wants to take you out and doesn't mind losing their life, there's not a heck of a lot you can do about it."
When asked if there is anything Congress can do to curb gun violence, Burchett replied: "I don't see any real role that we could do other than mess things up, honestly... I don't think you're gonna stop the gun violence. I think we've got to change people's hearts."
"As a Christian, as we talk about in the church, and I've said this many times, I think we really need a revival in this country," he argued.
Asked what could be done "to protect people like your little girl," Burchett said, "Well, we homeschool her."
Burchett's nihilistic stance on gun violence stands in stark contrast to his ardent support for banning public drag shows—which Tennessee did, with a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee earlier this month.
"A grown man dressed up like a woman... dadgummit, we don't put up with that crap in Tennessee, and we shouldn't," Burchett said during an appearance on Newsmax earlier this month. "And the rest of the country should follow suit."
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'Aren't You Guys Tired of Covering This?' Illinois Mass Shooting Survivor Speaks Out in Nashville
"How is this still happening? Why are our children still dying and why are we failing them?"
Mar 27, 2023
A gun control activist who survived last year's massacre at an Illinois July 4th parade spoke out at a police press conference on Monday's mass shooting at a Nashville elementary school to make an impassioned plea for gun control legislation.
"Aren't you guys tired of covering this? Aren't you guys tired of being here and having to cover all these mass shootings?" asked Ashbey Beasley. "I'm from Highland Park, Illinois. My son and I survived a mass shooting over the summer. I am in Tennessee on a family vacation with my son visiting my sister-in-law."
Beasley's comments came as TV news crews were wrapping up coverage of a Metro Nashville Police press conference after authorities announced the murder of six people—three staff members and three 9-year-old children—at the Covenant School by a 28-year-old former student armed with two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun.
"I have been lobbying in D.C. since we survived a mass shooting in July," Beasley continued. "I have met with over 130 lawmakers. How is this still happening? Why are our children still dying and why are we failing them?"
"We have to do something. We all have to call our lawmakers and we all have to make our lawmakers make change now," she added. "Or this is gonna keep happening and it's gonna be your kid, and your kid, and your kid, and your kid next."
In a separate interview on CNN, Beasley said that "this is just unacceptable. It's only in America can somebody survive a mass shooting and then go on vacation to visit another person they met through fighting for gun safety and find themselves near another mass shooting."
"Only in America does this happen where we keep seeing this again and again and again," she added, calling for stricter background checks on gun buyers and a ban on assault-style semi-automatic weapons.
Common Dreams recently reported on Jackie Matthews, a student during both the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut and the February Michigan State shooting.
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