NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee's House and Senate leaders have a unique request before they would like to meet for a special session on public safety.
They would like for the FBI or the Metro Nashville Police Department to release the manifesto of The Covenant School shooter. Details of this manner weren't requested before any type of gun legislation for Nashville's other two mass shootings inside a Waffle House or an Antioch church.
Gov. Bill Lee said Friday he would be calling for a special session on public safety and maintaining Second Amendment rights and that he would have details this week. Those details have yet to come.
In the meantime, some lawmakers said that the manifesto would be critical to any gun reform measures put in place. TBI director David Rausch did talk candidly at a recent Tennessee Sheriffs' Association meeting about the contents of the manifesto. Rausch said what police found isn't so much a manifesto spelling out a target but a series of rambling writings indicating no clear motive. MNPD during the aftermath of the shooting said none of the six who died were targeted.
"Audrey Hale murdered six Christians, and many Tennesseans are demanding that their state legislature 'do something,'" wrote Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, who is the House Republican Caucus Chairman. "We cannot possibly address this horrific situation until we know what was in her manifesto. I am calling on the Metropolitan Nashville Police Deparment (sic) and the FBI to immediately release this document so we can examine it, then take the appropriate steps."
Faison isn't the only one in leadership to have this belief. House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and Rep. Williams Lamberth, R-Portland, have both indicated the same idea in press gaggles. Rep. Todd Warner, R-Lewisburg, added himself to the list of lawmakers calling for the release of the Covenant manifesto on Wednesday. Warner has been in the crosshairs on his dealing with mail vendors, and the FBI raided his office in 2021. He was elected in 2020, beating incumbent Rep. Rick Tillis.
"Tennesseans and the families of the Covenant School shooting victims deserve to have transparency and justice in the midst of this tragic hate crime," Warner wrote. "Instead of automatically targeting 2nd amendment rights (sic)— as numerous Tennessee leaders have proposed— there should be an outright demand for the public release of these records."
The FBI has not identified what the shooter did as a hate crime. Congressional Republicans asked the Attorney General Merrick Garland to classify as one in early April. At the time, he said that no motive had been established.
It's not what will come of a special session. The governor hasn't released a new legislative package for members to consider, and the Republican supermajority rejected his order of protection/red flag proposal for mental health. No lawmakers added it as an amendment to any caption bills in the House, and only Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, tried to push forward the effort in the Senate. It was voted down immediately.
Between the shooting and the end of session, nearly a month transpired with no action on firearms, with the exception that the legislature voted on party lines to not allow suit against gun manufacturers after mass shootings. In that time period, no Republican other than Lee stepped forward with any proposed solutions, despite thousands of people coming to the legislature to protest for gun reform.
