NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Families close to a deadly shooting at a Nashville school broke down in tears Tuesday after a Tennessee Republican leader ordered state police to remove them and others. from a legislative courtroom as they waited to testify in favor of gun control measures. .
The emotional scene was just one of several chaotic moments that erupted during the second day of Tennessee’s special legislative session. Republican Gov. Bill Lee initially called lawmakers on Capitol Hill to consider his proposal to keep firearms away from dangerous people.
“I was supposed to speak, I was supposed to testify,” Sarah Shoop Neumann said, sobbing and shaking as she stood in front of the silent, GOP-controlled House subcommittee room, which was cleared after some cheers from the gallery. public, even though she was sitting down. she in silence and she did not carry any sign.
As the father of a son who attends The Covenant School, Neumann is among family members desperately trying to address relaxed state gun laws after a The shooter opened fire inside his school. and killed three children and three adults. He was later allowed to return to testify against a bill allowing more teachers to carry guns in school. The House subcommittee moved forward with the bill, though it appears its chances in the Senate are better.
“We’re just trying to do something,” Neumann later told reporters, as other Covenant parents crowded around them. “It’s overwhelming.”
However, Lee’s bill has been all but defeated by the Republican supermajority, where legislative leaders have largely refused to consider the issue. Without any debate, three variations of similar proposals for so-called extreme risk protection orders, or ERPOs, introduced by Democratic Rep. Bob Freeman of Nashville, immediately failed Tuesday in the same House subcommittee where the public was thrown out.
On the first day of the Monday special session, the Chamber republicans pushed through a new set of procedural rules that carried stiff penalties for lawmakers deemed too disruptive or distracting, and prohibited visitors from carrying signs inside the Capitol and in legislative hearing rooms. The Senate and House also passed severely limiting public access to galleries where people have traditionally been allowed to see their government in action.
The actions come after Tennessee Republicans drew national attention. for ousting two young black Democratic legislators earlier this year for violating House rules during a rally in support of gun control. Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson have since been reinstated, but the actions sent shockwaves over the ability of the Republican supermajority to mete out harsh punishments on their opponents.
However, on Tuesday protesters found ways to defy the new ban on signs and showed up at the House of Representatives with pro-gun control messages written on their bodies and clothing. Others wrote messages on their phones and displayed them for lawmakers to see.
That challenge met a harsher response when lawmakers stormed committee rooms to begin debating the legislation.
Allison Polidor, a gun control advocate from Nashville, was escorted out of a courtroom because she was holding a sign that read: “1 BOY ALL GUNS.”
“I wasn’t saying anything. I wasn’t doing anything. I was holding a sign,” Polidor told reporters outside the room.
Rep. Lowell Russell, the chairman of the Republican subcommittee, had also warned that he could order everyone out of the room.
Shortly thereafter, another Republican lawmaker said his bill that would allow people with gun permits to bring guns onto K-12 school and college property if they know the school does not have armed security was stalled. That announcement caused some gun control advocates in the crowd to erupt in applause.
“Are we going to shut up and listen, or are we going to sit there and clap our hands?” Russell said.
As some continued to applaud, Russell said, “All right, soldiers, let’s go ahead and clear the room.”
Members of the media were allowed to stay and some members of the public who were testifying about the legislation were allowed inside.
“We gave them three or four times so they wouldn’t make outbursts at the committee hearing, and unfortunately they continued after three, maybe four warnings,” Russell told The Associated Press afterwards. “Unfortunately, that’s how it happens if you don’t follow the rules.”
After the public was ejected, Neumann was allowed back to testify against the bill allowing more armed teachers. She said Covenant teachers’ hands were shaking so badly that day as they tried to keep the kids calm, safe, hidden and protected that they couldn’t have handled a firearm.
“They are heroes. They perfectly implemented all the established protocols,” Neumann said. “And they couldn’t have done those things if they were also meant to be armed and go out and attack the shooter.”
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