Covenant School parents have been at the Tennessee Capitol throughout the special session — holding signs, wearing ribbons in school colors and hoping for gun reform.
For now, those hopes have been dashed, and many of those parents are angry and disappointed.
“My daughter was hunted at her school,” said Mary Joyce, who is a member of the nonprofit Covenant Families Action Fund.
“As a mother, I’m going to have to look at my 9-year-old in the eye and tell her nothing. Our elected representatives have done nothing. Our state has done nothing to make you safer or to prevent this from happening again and again and again and again.”
Now, the Covenant Families Action Fund is refocusing its efforts on upcoming state and local elections, according Sarah Shoop Neumann, one of the group’s founders.
“We’ll take down the names of those who don’t deserve a seat here,” she said, “and we’ll ensure somebody replaces them who wants to be here with the right motivations.”
Rep. Gloria Johnson said in a tweet that another of the nonprofit’s founders, Melissa Alexander, spoke to her about her plans to run against Brentwood Rep. Gino Bulso in the 2024 Republican primaries. Alexander is a Republican and a gun owner.
Members of the Covenant Families Action Fund announced that they will return to the capitol to continue advocating for gun reform when the legislature reconvenes in January. In the meantime, they said they have requested meeting with the governor, House leadership and Senate leadership.
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