A shocking development in Tennessee
No, I'm not speaking of The Two Justins being reinstated to the Tennessee House of Representatives over the past two days. Oh, no. This is much more surprising:
Tennessee's Republican governor has signed an executive order to strengthen background checks for purchase of guns and has urged lawmakers to pass legislation tightening gun laws.
Governor Bill Lee's order comes in the wake of the Nashville school shooting that left six people, including three children, dead last month.
"This is our moment to lead," he said.
To say that you could have knocked me over with a feather would have been an understatement.
Now, yes, one can say that Governor Lee did this because his wife lost her close friend in the shooting. And you would be right. But that's missing the forest for the trees. Humans are funny creatures. In general, we think we don't have to worry about Problem A because Problem A doesn't touch us. Bill Lee was one of those people. Until he got touched by the daily tragedy of gun violence by which so many others in his state have been touched. By which so many others in this country have been touched, on a daily basis. It would be wonderful if we could learn our lessons without having to suffer such extreme consequences. Lord knows I've learned things the hard way. But that's part of being human.
Don't be fooled that progress will be easy. As the piece goes on to state:
Some Republican-led states, including Florida and Indiana, have adopted red flag laws, but it may be a challenge to pass such a measure in Tennessee, where several Republican lawmakers have expressed opposition to any type of gun control legislation
Tennessee has some of the most lax gun laws in the US, allowing residents 21 and older to carry handguns, concealed and unconcealed, without a permit.
Tennessee GOP legislators are in the pocket of the NRA. House Speaker Cameron Sexton's apoplexy over Justin Jones and Justin Pearson was due to Smith & Wesson having relocated to the state from Connecticut. The move was a feather in his cap, and was being ruined by all these protestors demanding gun control, led by these two young men. The fact that they were Black simply added insult to injury.
But as we saw with their swift reinstatement, what Mr. Sexton did was to take a manageable situation and turn it into something which was beyond his control. He elevated Messrs. Jones and Pearson to a notoriety which they did not heretofore possess. He made them the new faces of the gun control movement. And now he has to contend with his own governor calling for action on guns.
The majority of this country has had enough. It's had enough of being the West's version of Mogadishu. Across the political spectrum ordinary people want to be able to go to school, church, the park without wondering if this time it will be their turn to be sacrificed to Moloch. It's time to vote out anyone who stands in the way.
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