NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Whether enhanced permit gun owners can carry into a school is passing through the Tennessee House to the dismay of parents and grandparents with students in public schools.
The HB7064 — designed by Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County — will be heard in the House Education Administration Committee at 4 p.m. He said administrators were "begging him" for the ability to carry. He said placing guns in schools would provide protection that is "real world protection."
"We have retired officers, current officers knowing they will retire," Todd said. "They want to be part of a school in their neighborhood as no cost security. I am not sure if you could hear all that with the moaning and groaning going on. They could carry at any point on the property where school events are held or even field trips."
Administrations of public schools couldn't create a no-gun policy on their campus, Todd said. Private schools would have their own policies.
Cathy Barnett — a Moms Demand Action volunteer with 12 grandchildren — said she understands Republican politics, as her family worked for Howard Baker, a former senator and chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan.
Those ties didn't keep her from saying a bill that would allow enhanced gun permit owners, former military or former law enforcement from carrying a gun in a school. Currently, no guns are allowed on school property. Those enhanced gun permit owners could include teachers.
"As a parent I would like to say, I have grandchildren in schools right now in public school," she said. "I would feel very uncomfortable that anybody who decided to wake up one morning and say: I think I am going to go over to this school and be a vigilante today. Do you mention a limit? How many people are there going to be? Just 10, 12, 20? There’s no end to this. Please do not vote for this bill."
Covenant parents shared the same feelings, and did so Tuesday through the Covenant Families Action Fund. Melissa Alexander said her son still goes to school at Covenant and her son was on the second floor the day the shooting happened.
"When the fire alarm went off, they started to evacuate but pulled back into the room," Alexander said. "Then they heard gun shots all around. The first thing the teacher knew to do was to pull down the shade and lock the door. Her hands were shaking so bad she couldn't lock the door. I am a gun owner myself and shot guns most of my life. I, too, would have been shaking like the teacher. The shooter walked by the classroom."
One of the things the teacher had to do was tell her son and the other students to be quiet. She said her son and others live with trauma every day.
"All that's going to do is kill that teacher, and put that teacher in danger and the rest of that classroom in danger as they're trying to keep quiet," Alexander said. "I'm begging you. Surviving isn't the goal here. We want to prevent these shootings and I'm begging you to vote no on this bill."
Rep. Anthony Parkinson, D-Memphis, said he felt for the families who were affected by The Covenant School mass shooting
"To the mothers who had children at Covenant: you absolutely matter to me. I want you to know that," Parkinson said. "Your babies matter to me. And let me publicly apologize to you on behalf of the state of Tennessee for not protecting you and your babies and their teachers and your babies’ friends at Covenant school."
Todd said he knows schools are already having members carrying guns even though state law prohibits guns on campuses.
