Ahead of special session, Memphians tell legislators they want youth resources, strong gun laws

Legislators from Memphis gathered ideas from constituents Tuesday to take back to an upcoming special session in Nashville.

The Aug. 21 special session was called by Gov. Bill Lee after legislators in the General Assembly did not advance any gun safety measures after three children and three adults were killed at Covenant School in Nashville in March.

State Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, told the roughly 50 people gathered Tuesday night at Riverside Missionary Baptist Church that she and the other legislators in attendance — including Rep. Karen Camper, Rep. Jesse Chism and Sen. London Lamar — would take ideas back to the statehouse. Multiple members of the Memphis Police Department also attended.

Akbari told those gathered that she believes Lee is open to solutions to gun violence and that she and other Democrats are trying to find “common ground” with Republican leadership.

“Gun reform is a bipartisan issue. It’s not red, it’s not blue, it’s not Democratic, it’s not Republican,” Akbari said, sharing data about how the vast majority of Tennesseans support measures like background checks and safe storage.

Legislators are working on legislation including preemption laws so local governments can pass gun restrictions when the state does not, a blended sentencing structure allowing the juvenile system to have authority over young adults up to around 22 or 23 years old and to provide additional support for children exiting the justice system, Akbari said.

Akbari also described the history of gun-related legislation in Tennessee, from the allowance of guns in bars passed in 2010 to guns in cars in 2013 to the legalization of permitless carry in 2021.

Public comment can also be provided to the state prior to the special session at https://stateoftennessee.formstack.com/forms/specialsession_public_safety.

Memphians gathered Tuesday asked for strong gun laws as well as more community support for youth, including mental health resources, extended library hours and opened swimming pools. And, they discussed the challenge of creating effective legislation as a blue and urban city in a state where rural, Republican legislators hold sway in Nashville.

The issue of gun violence was personal to many of those gathered, particularly in a state where guns are the leading cause of death for children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tosha Downey told how, in 1989, she watched a 9-year-old cousin die of gun violence. In 1991, another cousin, this time 20 years old, died of gun violence. And in 2021, she watched a 14-year-old cousin die of gun violence.

She also remembers her generation being called “super predators,” with officials saying youth should be locked up and not considering that young people are impacted by childhood trauma and undeveloped prefrontal cortexes.

Today, those same children who might think carjacking is fun have no access to public swimming pools, no places to roller skate, no places to bowl, she said.

“13-year-olds are full of stupid energy, period. … They have nowhere to burn it up,” Downey said. “We don’t have justice systems that are restorative, we only have retributive justice. … We will never be able to arrest our way out of the crime we see, but we can invest our way out of it.”

Dr. Altha Stewart, senior associate dean for community health engagement at the Univeristy of Tennessee Health Science Center, stressed that children “are really not prepared for the world of hurt that we have allowed to be developed and dropped them into with poverty, instability in housing, inadequate access to healthcare, behavior healthcare.”

Currently, there’s no reentry program for youth exiting the juvenile justice system, Stewart said. And, 70% of children in carceral settings have mental illness.

“What if we get upstream of that? What if we start doing a universal screening?” Stewart asked. “The real solution to all of this is getting upstream before it happens.”

Attendees suggested that adults who allow youth violence to occur must be held accountable, that gun safety zones are needed in healthcare settings and that the age requirements for permitless carry should not be lowered from 21 to 18.

Sarah Carpenter, who lost her grandson in 2021, said she knows many children who’ve died due to violence in Memphis. People don’t know how to help, she said, or what resources are available.

“That’s what I’m tired of,” Carpenter said. “I’m tired of seeing our kids die on the street. We’ve got to do something. Our kids are crying out.”

She has four other sons, she said, and “I don’t want them to die on the streets.”Katherine Burgess covers government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphians tell legislators they want youth resources, strong gun laws