Metro has scheduled a series of three community meetings on school safety and the gun violence epidemic in response to the Covenant shooting. Members of the public have until noon on Friday, June 9, to submit questions and comments through this online form.
The meetings will be led by Councilmember Jeff Syracuse, who serves as the chair of the Metro Public Health and Safety Committee.
Over the past month, Syracuse met with advocates from the Uvalde Foundation and Sandy Hook Promise for guidance on how to move forward after a school shooting. They advised him not to immediately rush into filing new legislation.
“The first thing that I really learned was take your time, grieve, take care of families, take care of your community, take care of your children, and then take some time and be thoughtful about how you turn the grief into action,” he said.
State lawmakers are scheduled to gather in August to debate gun laws. Syracuse said Nashville’s ability to pass regulations on guns is severely limited by the Republican supermajority in the statehouse, but these meetings are important.
“I don’t have necessarily high expectations that this special session of the legislature is going to produce something meaningful that will be acceptable, I think, to most Nashvillians. But we certainly have to try,” said.
This meeting series is open to the public, and it will be broadcast and recorded by the Metro Nashville Network. The schedule is as follows:
Wednesday, June 14, 2023, at 4:00 p.m. — Council Chambers, Historic Metro Courthouse
This first meeting will focus on school safety and the relationship between Metro Nashville Public Schools and the Metro Nashville Police Department, with additional representatives from private schools and the fire department. There will also be a gun legislation update from state Reps. Bob Freeman and Caleb Hemmer.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. — Hillsboro High School Auditorium
The second meeting will be a panel with guests including:
- Daniel Chapin, founder and president of The Uvalde Foundation For Kids
- Representatives from Moms Demand Action
- Shaundelle Brooks, co-founder and president of the Akilah Dasilva Foundation
Wednesday, June 28, 2023, at 4:00 p.m. — Council Chambers, Historic Metro Courthouse
The third and final meeting will discuss gun violence as a public health epidemic with the Metro Public Health Department, the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety, Metro’s Office of Family Safety and the Mental Health Cooperative.
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