A Nashville school shooting has reignited calls for gun reform. Students once again marched at the Tennessee State Capitol Monday, pleading with lawmakers to act — days after a 17-year-old at Antioch High School fatally shot a 16-year-old classmate before turning the gun on himself.
Student organizers are less optimistic than they were two years ago.
A groundswell movement for gun reform after the Covenant School shooting in 2023 ultimately did not sway Tennessee’s Republican supermajority. Lawmakers refused a call from Republican Gov. Bill Lee to pass a red flag law, which would have allowed police to confiscate guns from people deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.
“I’m tired of doing this,” said college student Jermaine Cole Jr. “Year after year, I show up hoping that they’ll do something about gun violence, and it never changes.”
More: Latest updates on the Antioch High School shooting
Since the first round of gun control protests, the House has passed rules limiting the public’s access to the chamber. Half of the gallery has been blocked off for guests of lawmakers. As of this session, House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, now has the power to ban disruptive members of the public from the statehouse for up to two years.
Another key difference: in 2023, the governor had called a special session on public safety to address concerns after Covenant. This week, the governor has called a special session to focus on his signature voucher program, disaster relief for Hurricane Helene and immigration enforcement.
Activist Maryam Abolfazli was one of three moms kicked out of the 2023 special session for breaking a now-defunct House rule that banned spectators from holding signs.
“A lot of us have been through special session, and they will make a fool of you in that situation,” Abolfazli said. “So, no, I don’t want a fake special session on public safety.”
Instead, Abolfazli will be advocating against an expansion to the governor’s voucher program, which aims to use lottery and sports gambling revenue to fund scholarships for private K-12 schools statewide.
“We’re not naive. We know that the odds are stacked against us. We know that Republicans in this state, a lot of them, have no intention of making our communities safer, of stopping these school shootings from happening,” said Drew Spiegel, a sophomore at Vanderbilt University.
Before coming to Tennessee, Spiegel was part of the crowd in Highland Park, Illinois, when a man opened fire on a 4th of July parade, killing seven people.
“That is what our generation has become … a generation that is constantly waiting to run from bullets,” Spiegel said. “We deserve better. We deserve better than a legislature that has tried to keep ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ out of our classrooms more than guns.”
Some activists are looking elsewhere for change. Nashville organizer Clemmie Greenlee has been advocating for the victims of gun violence since losing her son in 2003. She said she hasn’t seen progress through the statehouse.
“Sitting in that legislature, watching them hit that hammer, and at the same time, take that pencil and sign off on that bill in your face? I will not give them that much power over me,” Greenlee said.
Instead, she said she’s focusing on being present for the kids in her own neighborhood who may be struggling. Kids, she said, need more afterschool programs and better support for their mental health.
While the initial wave of activism after the Covenant School shooting has ebbed over time, not everyone left when the chanting crowds did.
Covenant moms — and lifelong conservative voters — Melissa Alexander, Mary Joyce and Sarah Shoop Neumann have become fixtures at the legislature. They can often be found sitting above the House floor, silent in their appeal for gun reform.
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