Democratic state lawmakers say that their possible expulsion from the Tennessee General Assembly is a threat to democracy.
“We are losing our democracy in Tennessee. This is another example of the erosion of democracy because we spoke up for gun reform. Because we spoke up for people and children who will never become state legislators, who will never graduate from high school and never get engaged, never be able to see or protest for their own lives because they’ve been killed by gun violence,” said Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, on Wednesday’s episode of This Is Nashville.
Tennessee’s GOP supermajority is threatening to remove Pearson, Knoxville Rep. Gloria Johnson and Nashville Rep. Justin Jones for leading a protest for gun reform from the House floor last week.
Armed with a bullhorn, the trio brought proceedings on the House floor to a halt, as they chanted along with students and parents who came to the state capitol just days after three children and three adults were killed at the Covenant School in Green Hills.
“The real problem is we we spoke up — myself, Rep. Johnson and Rep. Jones — because the (House Speaker Rep. Cameron Sexton) and the leadership were being silent on this very important issue,” said Pearson. “And by using our First Amendment right, we were told that we need to be expelled, but it is because of the issue that we’re fighting against, which is gun control.”
Pearson also pushed back against Rep. Sexton’s claim that Thursday’s protest was an “insurrection” on par with the one at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Unlike Jan. 6, we did not have people breaking windows of the House. Unlike Jan. 6, we didn’t have people dying, including law enforcement officers working to protect representatives. … That was a terrible comparison to call Tennesseans who are asking that we do something about gun control, who are demanding that we have necessary gun reform legislation to keep not only our schools but our community safe,” he said. “To call them insurrectionists was just a terrible accusation. And it is definitionally wrong, and it is morally wrong.”
Rep. Johnson, who was also a guest on Wednesday’s episode, believes that their Republican colleagues are taking advantage of the situation.
“They think they’ve found a way to expel three of the most vocal folks in the legislature when it comes to speaking for the people,” she said.
The representatives acknowledge that they did break House decorum rules, but say that their actions were not egregious enough to have them removed from the General Assembly. The last Tennessee lawmaker expelled from the House was Rep. Jeremy Durham in 2016 for allegations of sexual abuse.
For Reps. Johnson and Pearson, the fight for gun control goes beyond the the Covenant School shooting since both have personally been impacted by gun violence. Rep. Pearson lost a former classmate, Larry Thorn, earlier this year, and Rep. Johnson was a special education teacher at Central High School in Knoxville in 2008 when a student shot and killed a classmate on school grounds.
The Tennessee House is expected to vote to remove the three lawmakers on Thursday, April 6.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM