IN-DEPTH: Nashville Shooting Sparks Gun Control Debate in Tennessee Legislature

The Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville on March 29, 2023. Chase Smith/The Epoch Times

As the Tennessee Legislature gaveled into session on April 17—with discussion of arming teachers on the agenda—a mother whose son attends The Covenant School, where three children and three staff members were murdered in a shooting on March 27, gave a harrowing account of how the tragedy affected her and her children.

“The last three weeks have been deeply painful. Our days are spent hearing children as young as 3 years old describe in horrific detail what they saw and heard,” said Sarah Neumann, holding back tears. “Third graders saw the dead bodies of their friends, not just coffins—their classmates. They sat in those rooms, shielded by their teachers, with bullets flying over them.”

Neumann’s 5-year-old son, Noah, attends The Covenant School, and also has a 2-year-old.

“I texted our preschool moms thread ‘active shooter at Covenant,'” she said. “I could barely type the words, my body was shaking. At that moment, that innocent moms text thread was forever changed from a place that we shared pictures and reminded each other of dress up days, to now coping through trauma and things parents should never have to discuss.”

Soon after, she met up with her family at a reunification site at a nearby church to be with the Covenant community.

“My dad drove an hour to get the kids so they wouldn’t witness any more agony, but not before the first mom was told her kid was gone,” she said. “Those screams and sorrowing wails—I worked in pediatric oncology for 13 years, I held kids in my arms as they died way too many times—nothing compared to the scream of that mom.”

A young girl moves toward the items left in front of the photo of Hallie Scruggs, one of three 9-year-olds killed along with school staff in the March 27 shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn. Chase Smith/The Epoch Times

She said she walked in the school the other day and saw the bullet holes and the spots where the bodies of the students and staff members had lain. She said classrooms looked like they were frozen in time, with March 27 still written on the boards.

Gun Control Activists

The march where Neumann spoke on April 17 was a part of “Moral Monday,” a political demonstration in which protesters took to the streets of Nashville to call upon the state Legislature to ban “assault weapons” in Tennessee and to vote against legislation to arm teachers.

Scores of people participated in Nashville’s “Moral Monday,” a political demonstration that first started in North Carolina a decade ago by Bishop William Barber II. Nashville’s event included marchers carrying adult and children’s caskets to the state Capitol, speeches outside of the Capitol, and eventually some entering the Capitol.

Those caskets were not allowed by Tennessee State Troopers into the Capitol.

Rep. Justin Jones, one of two Democrats expelled from the House for causing disorder while calling for gun control days after the shooting, brought the smallest casket into the capitol and attempted to bring it into the House chamber as it was already in session.

“I was just trying to get back into the chamber with a child’s casket to represent the policies of this body and we were locked out,” he said.

Jones said the clergy came in the “thousands” from across the nation to “give moral witness to what’s happening” in the Tennessee Legislature.

“Thousands of clergy … are here today praying and asking us to do something about these children who are being killed in our streets,” Jones continued. “I hope, Mr. Speaker, that casket that’s sitting out of there will send a clear message about what is happening in this body. We are perpetuating policies of death.”

Rev. William Barber II addresses the media during a press conference in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 22, 2016. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Barber organized the event with gun control activist groups Everytown for Gun Safety and Students Demand Action.

Better Security, Not Gun Control

Members of the Tennessee Legislature opposed to stricter gun control measures have been focused on increasing school security measures and increasing mental health funding instead of restricting gun rights.

In a press conference the day of The Covenant School shooting, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said that investigators determined the shooting suspect had considered a different target to attack, “but because of threat assessment by the suspect, too much security, they decided not to.”

Republican Gov. Bill Lee, along with members of the Legislature’s Republican supermajority, announced changes to the budget shortly after the shooting that would include increased funding for an armed school resource officer at every school and doubling the amount of money toward mental health resources.

Lee, a week after the initial measures, also called on the Legislature to pass some form of an extreme risk protection order and signed an executive order strengthening background checks.

The Tennessee Firearms Association has condemned the governor in what they say is an attempt to create red flag laws and restrict the Second Amendment rights of Tennesseans.

Many Republicans have stated specifically that red flag laws are a “nonstarter” and would violate due process rights of gun owners in Tennessee.

As of April 18, legislation has not been brought up to create a red flag law. The session is expected to wrap up next week and will not reconvene until January 2024.