Tennessee Republican lawmakers were at odds Thursday just days into a special session sparked by a deadly school shooting in March, leaving little certainty about what they might ultimately pass. , but it all but guarantees that it won’t be any significant change in gun control.
After advancing several bills this week, the GOP-dominant Senate quickly adjourned Thursday without taking up any more proposals, promising to return on Monday. The announcement drew boos and jeers from the crowd of gun control advocates watching in the galleries.
But the decision also ignited anger among Republican supermajorities in the House as they continued to press ahead with a whole slate of other proposals. House leaders insist they are using the special session to take up a wide range of measures, while the Senate has refused to pass anything outside of the limited legislative agenda the governor outlined at the start of the special session. .
TENNESSEE JUDGE ALLOWS PEOPLE TO RETURN SIGNS AT STATE HOUSE HEARING DURING GUN CONTROL DEBATE
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers have expressed alarm that the only bills being considered in either chamber focus only on responses to mass tragedies rather than preventative measures that specifically address gun violence.
“We are preparing for the next tragedy,” said Democratic Rep. Justin Pearson, who was expelled from the House earlier this year for joining pro-gun control protesters from the House floor but has since been reinstated. “Preparing for the next child victims … to be met with gun violence because it’s probably the best we can do.”
People in the gallery shout for gun law reforms in the Senate chamber during a special session of the state legislature on public safety on August 24, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The standoff between the two chambers added fuel to an emotional and chaotic special legislative session, where gun control advocates want the GOP-dominant Statehouse to consider overhauling relaxed gun laws. of the state.
TENNESSEE SCHOOL SHOOTING PROTESTORS REMOVED FROM SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE SESSION ON GUN CONTROL
Instead, Republican legislative leaders took steps to limit public access to the Capitol building and increased the presence of law enforcement. House Republicans attempted to ban the public from holding signs during floor and committee proceedings, but a judge in Tennessee blocked that rule from enforcement. During one hearing, a House subcommittee chairman ordered troopers to evict the public from the chamber after the crowd was deemed too rowdy. It included grieving parents closely connected to the school shooting, who were moved to tears by the decision.
Senate Speaker Randy McNally told reporters Thursday that senators would consider any bills the House might amend, but stopped short of promising to work out a compromise in the other chamber.
“We may be here for a very long time,” McNally said.
Legislative officials say it costs about $60,000 a day when lawmakers are in session, but that doesn’t account for the many state troopers who have lined the walls of the Capitol and legislative offices over the past week. .
Republican Gov. Bill Lee called lawmakers back into session after the March shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, where three children and three adults were killed. Lee hopes to assemble a coalition to pass his proposal to keep guns away from people judged to pose a threat to themselves or others, which he added stops short of being a so-called red flag law. It had already failed to get a vote in the final days of the month-long regular session that ended in April.
In the end, no Republican would sponsor the bill for this week, and the Democratic versions of it were multiplied in committee without any debate.
Beyond that, the governor proposed several smaller changes that he said would improve public safety, some of which were passed by the Senate. They will encourage people to use safe gun storage facilities; require annual human trafficking reports; carve into state law some changes to background checks already created by the governor’s order; and set aside more state money for school resource officers, and bonuses and scholarships for behavior professionals.
House Republicans got more.
One of the bills moving through the House would require that juveniles age 16 or older be charged as adults on charges of murder or attempted murder. The proposal would allow for a juvenile sentence combined with an adult sentence when the offender turns 19, and would cover more than a dozen other offenses ranging from theft to rape.
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Other active House bills include one to protect public disclosure of autopsies of child homicide victims, supported by a group of several Covenant School parents.
The House considered, but stopped short of advancing, two bills to allow more faculty and staff, or members of the broader public with carry permits, to carry firearms on public K- 12 schools. Several bills regarding armed security in schools remain alive, including a proposal that would let local law enforcement leaders decide for themselves whether to put officers in schools that don’t already have officers. school resources.
“At this point, the Senate has not put an idea to them,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton told reporters from the House floor. “So maybe next week they’ll come back and do something.”
