NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Even with thousands of Tennesseans entering the capitol to push for gun legislation, the Tennessee General Assembly did not vote on any firearms measures in response to The Covenant School shooting.
However, Republican leadership said on Friday night that they hoped Gov. Bill Lee to call a special session just to focus on gun reform. Lee announced he would like the legislature to pass a billthat would create red flag protections based on mental health. They did not.
Lee's idea would have expanded an existing order of protection law that encompasses domestic violence cases.
As written in the governor's proposal, this would be dubbed as a temporary mental health order of protection. There will be no ex parte, meaning those in question will have to be notified and given the opportunity to stand before a judge. This announcement was made hours before the House passed the budget and blamed the timing as the reason Republican leadership never attached the legislation as an amendment to the bill. It was never filed.
Lee's efforts for this came after The Covenant School shooting, which resulted in the deaths of six victims, plus the gunman. Of those six victims, three were 9-year-olds.
"Here's what I would say to the families," House Speaker Cameron Sexton said. "We met with a lot of them. We made inroads to protect schools or for other things. We want them to be protected on the playground and community. It's easy for us to sit here and say what needs to happen. But we need to move in the direction on mental health, and everybody across the state can give input. I think everyone is frustrated."
Democrats said they looked at leaving this legislative session as a failure, and that members hadn't met the "moral responsibility."
"We've never seen a body race out of town avoiding the people's business," Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, said. "We owe the families at Covenant and across Tennessee an apology for not doing our job. People just want solutions. We should be ashamed as a society that we live in a place and time when part of the grieving process for these moms is to come up here and do what we are elected to do. They are shutting down debate. We are supposed to legislate. They are headed for the exits. The people should see the adjournment and say, 'get back to work."
Rep. William Lamberth said stakeholder meetings need to happen across the state about gun legislation. He said he would like for that to happen before a special-called session.
"Hopefully, he is bringing a legislative package to us. We will wait to see what that package looks like," Lamberth said. "We've been working for weeks on these solutions. How do you keep guns out of the hands of those who are criminally insane? How do you not trample on the rights of Tennesseans? We aren't going to seize firearms. These are big issues to dive into."
A special-called session could happen as early as May.
