Tennessee House Republicans on Tuesday passed legislation to allow some trained teachers and school staff to carry handguns despite pleas from Democrats, students and gun-reform advocates to defeat the bill.
Dozens of protestors in the galleries began chanting "Blood on your hands" as soon as the legislation passed, prompting House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, to order state troopers to clear the galleries. Many protestors continued to chant and stomp down at lawmakers as the House floor fell into chaos over parliamentary issues.
Four Republicans ultimately crossed the aisle to join Democrats in voting against the bill, with another three abstaining from the vote. Still, the measure easily sailed through the House on a 68-28 vote and is all but guaranteed to become law within weeks, as Gov. Bill Lee can either sign it into law or allow it to become law without his signature. Lee has never vetoed a bill.
Armed teachers, who will be required to undergo training that some opponents have argued is not intensive enough, will be allowed to carry handguns in their classrooms and in most campus situations without informing parents and most of their colleagues they're armed.
The school district's director of schools, the school principal and the chief of the "appropriate" law enforcement agency must sign off on a staff member's authority to carry a concealed handgun, so school administrators could theoretically block any teacher from going armed on campus. The legislation also requires criminal and mental health background checks.
On Tuesday, Republicans rejected several Democratic attempts to amend the bill, including requiring teachers keep their handguns locked up except during a school security breach, holding teachers civilly liable for using their handgun on campus and informing parents when guns are on campus.
The passage of the bill comes a little more than a year since the Covenant School shooting in Nashville left six people dead, including three children. And Democrats on Tuesday were broadly critical of the bill, both skeptical it could effectively stop a school shooter and concerned about unintended consequences, such as a teacher leaving a gun unattended for a student to find or the use of increased force during in-school discipline issues.
“This is nothing but a bad disaster and tragedy waiting to happen if we do not ensure personal responsibility," House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said. "Our children’s lives are at stake."
Republicans in favor of the measure have argued trained staff can increase school security, particularly in rural areas where law enforcement may be more sparsely staffed with greater response times to far-flung communities. The General Assembly last year funded school resource officer positions at all Tennessee schools, with the ability for SROs to go armed. Staffing issues have complicated hiring for those positions and nearly 600 schools do not have an SRO in place.
Sponsor Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, said his bill was aimed at protecting students and acting as a deterrent for potential school security threats. Williams also pointed to a previous 2016 law that allowed some school districts in “distressed” counties, an economic indicator established by the state, to opt into a teacher handgun carry program, noting this isn't totally unprecedented in Tennessee.
"As a parent of public school kids, my kids are grown now, people ask me all the time: Have you done everything you could possibly do to make our schools safe across the state? I believe that this is the method by which we can do that," Williams said.
Williams continually pointed out that the bill is "permissive," meaning no school would be required to allow guns on campus, though the bill appears to require administrators to consider every individual who wants to carry, rather than issue a blanket school or district policy opting out from the program.
"If they did say that, they would be telling their entire community that the deterrent doesn’t exist there,” Williams said, later saying "gun-free" schools are zones where "people know they can go there and take advantage of folks."
Republicans denied Democratic assertions that introducing more guns into schools will endanger children.
"We’re being blamed for putting guns in schools, but the purpose of it is to protect our children and that is often forgotten," said Rep. Sabi Kumar, R-Springfield.
Bill sparks backlash from gun reform advocates
The bill, HB 1202/SB 1321, sparked vocal protests in the Senate earlier this month as parents of school shooting survivors, gun reform advocates and students have heavily lobbied against the bill. A Covenant School mom delivered a letter to the House on Monday with more than 5,300 signatures asking lawmakers to defeat the bill.
Sarah Shoop Neumann's letter criticized gaps in training and burdening teachers with the responsibilities of confronting an assailant with a gun while keeping an entire classroom safe.
Shoop Neumann called the passage of the bill "disgraceful."
She described a number of amendments that Covenant parents discussed with the bill's sponsors — none of which passed.
"We worked with the Senate and representative sponsors of this bill to make it even a little bit safer — anything, really — and I'm utterly disappointed that that was not taken into consideration," she said.
Covenant parents have echoed widespread concern about the secrecy clause in the bill, which bars school administrators from revealing who in the school is armed except to relevant law enforcement and school staff who are responsible for campus security. Williams said the bill seeks to shield gun carriers' identities to protect them from related "hiring and firing decisions."
"I've heard so many times about parental consent, that it’s a parent’s responsibility to raise their child," said Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, who called the bill "absolutely insane" on Tuesday. "I also think it’s a parent’s job to know if their child is being put at risk by having someone in the classroom with a firearm that another child could find, that could be discharged and actually harm them or other kids.
Opponents of the bill filled the public House gallery on Tuesday, holding signs reading things like "SHAME" and "1 Kid > All the guns."
Early in the debate, Sexton gaveled down vocal protestors and warned he would clear the gallery if necessary. He later directed troopers to remove one woman, Lauren Shipman-Dorrance, from the ticketed gallery.
Shipman-Dorrance, a Davidson County teacher and parent, has worked to advocate for gun reform for the last year. She said she grew frustrated watching lawmakers chat, scroll on their phones and eat their lunch on the House floor while the bill was debated, leading her to yell out from the public gallery.
“I've been teaching a long time. I've worked in a lot of schools where violence is a thing, even if a gun isn't involved. And that will happen more if they pass this," Shipman-Dorrance said. “I used to think they didn’t get it, but I honestly just think at this point, they're not hearing us no matter what. And that really, to me, calls into question ethically, morally, what are they doing and why."
Sexton later cleared the galleries, with troopers flooding into the Capitol rotunda to block access from much of the hallway. Protestors continued to chant outside the chamber doors.
House floor chaos, accusations between members
The House floor also fell into chaos after the vote over the bill, which was paused last year in the aftermath of the Covenant shooting and raucous protests over Republican supermajority inaction on gun issues.
Long-simmering tensions between members spilled over as Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, walked toward the well of the House chamber while recording on his phone. Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County, rushed to the clerk's desk beside Jones to call Jones out of order. A scrum ensued, with lawmakers hurling accusations at each other and filing official out of order calls with the House clerk.
Jones said Todd shoved into him near the well, leading Clemmons to call for a rules violation vote against Todd. Republicans easily voted it down, in addition to another rules violation call against a Rep. Jerome Moon, R-Maryville, for recording on the House floor, an official rule that is loosely followed most days.
Meanwhile, Republicans voted through three separate rules violations against Jones, including for recording on the House floor. Jones later said it was an inequitable application of the rules wielded by the GOP supermajority against a young Black lawmaker.
Due to the three votes against Jones, he will not be allowed to speak in House proceedings for two days, House ethics counsel Doug Himes confirmed on Tuesday. With lawmakers looking to wrap up session as soon as possible, Jones could be effectively silenced for the rest of the 2024 session.
"This vote to silence me just formalized what has been a pattern all sesson, silencing any voice of dissent as they push harmful bills that the majority of Tennesseans do not want," Jones said.
Rachel Wegner contributed to this report.
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