Several state lawmakers have been protesting for stricter gun laws following the recent shooting at a Tennessee school. They are now paying a high price for this: two of them are being thrown out of the state parliament.
Tennessee’s Republican-led House of Representatives has expelled two Democrats. Another MP, who should also be excluded, narrowly survived the vote on Thursday (local time). The three MPs took part in a demonstration in parliament last week for stricter gun laws.
Their behavior brought “disorder and dishonor” to the House of Representatives, according to The Tennessean newspaper in resolutions tabled by Republicans calling for his removal. After the dismissal, citizens protested loudly in the parliament building.
According to a New York Times report, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Cameron Sexton compared the three MPs to the attackers who stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. The two expelled MPs are both black, the third MP not expelled is white.
US President Joe Biden described the process on Twitter on Thursday as “shocking, undemocratic and unprecedented”. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the ousted lawmakers showed solidarity with children and families peacefully demonstrating for tougher gun laws.
4686 people already shot in 2023
In Tennessee and across the U.S., children have paid the price for Republican lawmakers who resist passing such legislation, Jean-Pierre said. According to the American database “Gun Violence Archive”, there were already 141 “mass shootings” in 2023, in which more than four people were injured or shot – not counting the perpetrator. This year, 4,686 people have already been shot, not counting suicides. In comparison, in 2021, the Federal Ministry of the Interior counted nine gun deaths in Austria. If this is extrapolated to the significantly higher overall U.S. population, Austria would still have more than 4,300 fewer casualties per year than the U.S. after nearly four months.
Former President Barack Obama calls the eviction “the latest example of a general undermining of decency and democratic standards”. Silencing those who advocate for children and disagree is “a weakness, not a strength.”
The protests, which included lawmakers, came after three children and three adults were killed by an assailant at a Nashville elementary school in late March. According to police reports, the suspected gunman was shot dead by police officers after the attack. It involved a 28-year-old woman who used to attend the affected school herself, it said. She was armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun, which she purchased legally.
Source: Krone
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