NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The debate over guns in the Tennessee legislature has been a never-ending one: a mass shooting leads to debate, nothing happens, then the next mass shooting and the next debate.
For more than a year, NewsChannel 5's "Revealed" investigation has taken a hard look at how Tennessee's Capitol Hill really works — or, in this case, doesn't work.
After Nashville's Covenant School shooting, NewsChannel 5 Investigates began digging through six years of legislation.
What we discovered are many bills over the years that most Tennesseans would consider to be common-sense solutions to try to protect the innocent. But Tennessee's Republican supermajority has repeatedly blocked those bills, arguing the need to protect gun rights.
The mass shooting at the Covenant School followed years of debate over gun policy in the Tennessee legislature — debate that usually ended with nothing changing.
Among those rushing to the place where parents hoped to be reunited with their children was the area's state senator.
"I spent hours, it seemed like days. It was a long day," said Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville.
There, Campbell said she came face-to-face with families for whom she has fought in the legislature.
"And at one point in the congregation, I heard this primal scream coming from this woman who had just found out that she had lost her child, and I will never forget it," Campbell said.
"It was anguish. It was just horrible. Just nobody should ever have to go through that."
It is sometimes said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Critics say, in some ways, that's exactly what has happened here in the legislature when it comes to school shootings.
After the Parkland school shooting in 2018, then-Gov. Bill Haslam talked about the need to beef up school security.
"Everything from school resource officers to physical improvements of the schools to video monitors," Haslam told reporters.
And after Uvalde last year, Gov. Bill Lee again wanted to talk school security.
"We are not looking into gun restrictions or gun laws as a part of this school safety plan going forward," Lee added.
Even after Covenant, Lt. Governor Randy McNally's first statement was about, you guessed it, school security.
Lee's response announced Monday leans heavily on enhanced school security.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Campbell, "Do we have a school security problem?"
"No, I don't think that's the solution," the state senator answered. "We can't militarize our schools and, even if we could, we can't militarize them enough."
In this case, police say the shooter was being treated for some sort of mental illness, but the shooter's family was powerless to do anything.
It was a similar story for the shooter in Nashville's Antioch church shooting in 2017 and the Waffle House mass shooting in 2018.
Over and over, Democrats have pushed for a so-called red-flag law that would allow the courts to take weapons out of the hands of such mentally unstable individuals.
Over and over, Tennessee's Republican majority refused to go along, with one member arguing that taking such a person's guns away might actually send them over the edge.
"I think you're going to create greater danger and greater cause of harm," said Rep. Rush Bricken, R-Tullahoma, during one debate. "I'm afraid that this will cause more escalated violence than less."
House Democratic Leader Karen Camper described the reaction she received.
"They just don't believe it solves the problem — that's literally what some of them have said," the Memphis Democrat recalled. "Guns, you know, don't kill people. It's people that kill people. It's just been that kind of conversation."
Over and over, the result was the same: red flag bills were voted down.
"They're not just doing nothing about this problem, they're every day working hard to make it worse, to make guns more prevalent," said former Rep. Mike Stewart, D-Nashville.
Stewart repeatedly tried to pass a law requiring universal background checks to keep firearms out of the hands of convicted felons, people accused of domestic violence and the mentally ill. He hoped that, by showing how easy it was for someone to buy a dangerous weapon without a background check, he could change some minds.
"I can equip myself to attack a school, using arms lists and other sites on the Internet," Stewart said. "And with no background check, no restrictions of any kind, no restriction other than having cash in my pocket, I can get everything that I need to attack that school."
Year after year, that background check legislation has died.
"I hate to be a pessimist," Heidi Campbell said, but "it's a really, really tough issue."
And just weeks ago, Campbell tried to pass a bill making it a misdemeanor to transfer a gun to a person knowing that person was legally prohibited from possessing a gun.
"Obviously, that's pretty simple logic," she added, "but nonetheless that didn't get any debate in committee."
Campbell got one Republican vote.
The rest voted her bill down.
"We passed on the floor just yesterday a bill that we passed that made it illegal to give a car to someone who is intoxicated, and yet we are not going to do the same when it comes to firearms," Campbell said.
So what does it say about the state of our politics?
"In the final analysis," she said, "it says we are not willing to protect our children."
In recent years, Republicans have also blocked bills to fine gun owners who leave firearms in unlocked cars where they're often stolen and used in crimes.
There was also a bill to simply require gun owners to notify police if a gun is lost or stolen. Failure to do so would have just required the person to take a gun safety class.
Even that was voted down.
After Covenant, some Republicans like Lt. Governor McNally are hinting they might now be willing to support a red-flag law.
"There might be some disagreement here, but that’s something I would support," the Oak Ridge Republican told reporters last week.
As for gun lobbyist John Harris, NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "There's nothing that you could support though to restrict access to guns?"
"Not constitutionally," Harris said.
The executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association argues that last year's Supreme Court decision, known as Bruen, means the Second Amendment is a near-absolute prohibition on what some people might view as common-sense solutions – and he sees no need to challenge it.
We asked, "If Republicans support a red-flag law, will there be consequences at the ballot box from your group?"
"Oh, absolutely, and probably in the courts as well," Harris acknowledged.
We pressed, "And you'll try to defeat any Republicans who go along with this?"
"We will look for challengers for anyone that violates Bruen."
Advocates say that means this community can only pray that these deaths in this city will convince lawmakers that doing the same thing over and over again isn’t making us safer.
"You know, there have been 367 shootings since Columbine when we said never again," Campbell said.
"If this is the one time that we are going to make progress, then thank God."
SPECIAL SECTION: Revealed
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