Representative Chris Todd’s school gun bill fails to advance from chaotic committee meeting

A bipartisan group of lawmakers voted down a controversial bill to increase the number of people allowed to carry a gun on school property in Tennessee.By a tied vote of 9 to 9 the members of the House Education Administration Committee failed to advance House Bill 7064 Wednesday evening.  The legislation would have allowed active and retired members of law enforcement and the military along with enhanced handgun carry permit holders the ability to go armed on public Pre-K through high school grounds.Five Republican Representatives, including Chair Mark White, R-Memphis, and Representative John Gillespie, R-Memphis joined four Democrats to vote against the legislation. The group of Democrats also included newly reappointed Representative Justin Jones, D-Nashville.“I just don’t believe that allowing more people under the parameters that this bill sets forth is gonna create a safer environment at a football game or a basketball game or any event like that and so I just have to strongly, absolutely strongly oppose this,” said Gillespie. “I think this is just bad public policy.”

Chaotic Debate

The vote followed more than an hour and a half of debate that Representative Todd Warner, R- Marshall County, attempted to cut short when he called for a vote early in the discussion. Warner’s parliamentary move immediately brought a vocal response from several Democratic lawmakers who felt Chairman White should have called on them first.“We had our hands up from the beginning,” shouted Jones. “I was the first one to raise my hand and we told you because we knew the games that you play.”“Mr. Chairman with all due respect that was a crock of crap,” shouted Representative Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis.Chairman White attempted to persuade Representative Todd to withdraw his motion and he refused, creating chaotic outbursts from spectators and committee members and an eventual delay of the meeting by White to restore order.“We have a proper motion before us that I have to recognize,” said White. “Whether you agree with the vote or not, we need to be civil with each other because these are all important issues.”Todd’s motion failed on an 11 to 7 vote, allowing bill supporters and opponents to weigh in.“This bill is unfortunately yet another attempt at deflection, deception, and distraction from the real issue of which we are assembled to address which is the crisis of mass shootings in our state and gun violence which takes the lives of four Tennesseans every day,” said Jones.Bill sponsor Representative Chris Todd, R- Madison County, pushed back against the opposition, claiming the solution to school shootings is ending gun-free zones.“When seconds matter, we don’t have 15 minutes for law enforcement to get there. Too many lives are lost in that period of time and so this is about trusted individuals in our communities, folks that everybody trusts being able to volunteer,” said Todd. “There is no gun violence, there is no knife violence, there is no storm violence, it is people violence. People are the problem.  Evil people want to take our children’s lives and make a name for themselves just like some on this committee have done today.”Representative Todd’s remarks brought pushback from bill opponents including Representative Parkinson who asked him if the Covenant School Shooting victims would still be alive if the gunman hadn’t had access to guns.“People can use any kind of an inanimate object as a weapon. If she hadn’t had a gun she probably would have had a car.  She had a car. She probably would have driven over those kids when they went to recess.  She would have found a way without a doubt,” said Todd.Family members of Covenant School Shooting survivors were in the audience at the time, including Abby Mclean who said arming teachers is not the answer.“My daughter was in one of the third-grade classrooms that was violently assaulted that morning. As each student ran and ducked for cover in their classroom knowing that danger was literally seconds from their door, their teacher had just enough time to get the barracuda lock on the door before the shooter opened fire directly into their classroom through that door window,” said Mclean. “The best way for our teachers to protect our students is to know how to hide them.  To hide themselves. If the teacher dies trying to kill the perpetrator all 12 of those children are dead.”