Tennessee Republicans double down on restricting free speech

The United States has a longstanding history of gun violence. It is a public health issue that affects everyone. The nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety ranks Tennessee as having the country’s 12th-highest rate of gun deaths. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention backs this up, with data showing that the state has among the highest rates of firearm-related mortality across the past few years.

This statistical reality combined with the shooting at a Christian school in Nashville led Republican Gov. Bill Lee to announce legislation in April that would create more school security. When Lee dared to add some minuscule regulations to an existing “order of protection” law that would temporarily withhold firearms from someone facing mental health issues, his political party balked. On Monday, Lee pushed the state legislators back for a special session aimed at managing public safety, and his Republican colleagues began right where they left off—trying to stymie democratic debate on the issue.

State Rep. Justin Jones shot a video in the Tennessee rotunda shortly before the session began. Pointing to the heavy law enforcement presence and the push to keep the public as far away from the proceedings as possible, Jones predicted what was to come. “This is our special session that was supposed to be around gun violence,” he said, “but what we see is a party that is more concerned with stifling and stopping free speech and dissent than they are about stopping the gun violence that is plaguing our community and state.”