'They're begging us to do something': Nashville lawmaker calls for gun reform as hundreds protest after Covenant shooting

Tennessee state Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Nashville, has struggled to find the words this week as his district, and the city at large, reels from the deadliest school shooting in state history that left three children and three staff dead on Monday.

Freeman grappled with the tragedy as an elected official and as a father, as his young daughter attended the same Sunday school class as one of the Covenant School victims.

"What's the right way to help a child grieve the loss of a friend and the loss of innocence?" Freeman asked his House colleagues.

"Parents dropped their kids off on a beautiful spring morning with no idea their lives would forever be changed at a moment of senseless gun violence."

For more than a thousand people on Thursday morning, their response to the Covenant shooting led them up the steps of the Tennessee Capitol and into its halls, where they crowded into its marble rotunda and lined the chamber galleries.

As their chants for "gun reform now" rang out, Tennessee Highway Patrol members were forced to hold open paths for lawmakers and staff to get into the House chamber, which eventually erupted in an unprecedented confrontation sparked by two freshman lawmakers urging their colleagues to address gun safety issues before returning to business as usual.

Freeman called for "common-sense reforms" including red flag laws and background checks. Freeman addressed his Republican supermajority colleagues, who in recent years have relaxed gun laws in the state.

"Our children, our teachers and our neighbors were killed by a weapon of war obtained legally by someone that should never have had the ability to carry out this type of violence against our community," Freeman said.

Freeman urged his colleagues to listen to the crowd waiting outside the House doors.

"They're out there right now. They're begging for us to do something," Freeman said.

More: A timeline of Covenant School shooting in Nashville: What we know

Senate speaker Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, said Thursday he would support red flag laws, in addition to increasing security measures at school. House leadership would not commit to supporting or opposing gun reforms floated by their Democratic colleagues, but leadership said they would be open to discussing any options to keep Tennessee children safe.

"We'll be happy to have everything on the table and have a conversation," House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, said.

Young people flock to Capitol to call for gun reform

Sarah Braam, Davern Cigarran, Alexine Stewart and Sullivan Strobel, all juniors at Harpeth Hall School, huddled together ahead of the protest.

“We’re like one of several car-fulls coming,” Braam said. “Our dean said we could have an excused absence to be here today.”

Junior year is a busy time in a high schooler’s career getting ready for the next steps in their lives, but all four girls felt it was vitally important to represent children their age at the Capitol Thursday.

“I feel like it's an issue that needs to be seriously addressed,” Cigarran said. “I also feel like the Covenant shooting is something that impacted a lot of people in our community very directly. I think this is something that can’t just be, you know, ignored or protested for four days and then forgotten about.”

Emotions ran high in the crowd inside the Capitol, where protestors filed through security checkpoints before floor sessions Thursday morning. Though there was a brief moment where Tennessee Highway Patrol pulled a protestor out of the crowd as a lawmaker attempted to return to House chamber, there were no other altercations with security and protestors remained in areas open to the public.

"It was a loud demonstration but resolved peacefully," Tennessee Highway Patrol spokesperson Lt. Bill Miller said Friday. "It was resolved with no arrests and no damaged property."

McNally calls for school security changes, would support red flag law

In a letter to Gov. Bill Lee, McNally called for increased school security measures in response to the Covenant shooting. Leadership met with the governor on Wednesday, House leadership said.

"While these changes would come with a cost, I believe it is important for us to have a conversation about how to increase and modernize security at schools in Tennessee," McNally said. "Much like the institution of fire codes has decreased the amount of school building fires, I believe we can come up with something similar for school safety."

McNally said he would be supportive of red flag laws, though he signaled not all of his colleagues would agree.

"In my opinion, states like Florida that have red flag laws, that's something that I would support," McNally said. "Provided there is protection from false reporting."

McNally pointed to the Covenant shooter's access of the school by shooting through glass doors at a side entrance vestibule, calling for securing windows and glass with "bullet proof or resistant" film.

McNally also called for magnetic locks on doors to ease first responder access to building doors that might be locked down in an emergency, in addition to "centralized and modernized camera systems."

The speaker also called for an armed guard at every public and private school. Tennessee public schools currently have access to school resource officers.

Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, said "there's an opportunity for the Republican supermajority to in fact do something."

"The people are screaming and shouting out for us to do something about it, and we can do it right now," Camper said.

Tempers high in House

Even as the crowds continued to chant outside, the House moved on to its lengthy Thursday agenda, which included bills delayed on Monday when lawmakers chose to pause floor debates hours after the Covenant shooting.

The House floor descended into chaos later in the morning, after Sexton repeatedly gaveled down members of the public in the gallery, and two outspoken freshman Democrats who continually called for colleagues to address gun reform.

"I'm asking you to do your job," one woman screamed from the gallery. "There is blood on your hands. Do your job."

After butting heads with Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, and Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, Sexton called all leadership up to the dais. As leaders of both the Republican and Democratic caucuses engaged in heated discussions, Pearson and Jones took over the House chamber well.

The pair, flanked by Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, began leading the House galleries in chants of "gun reform now."

They later walked off the House floor after a heated confrontation with their own Democratic leadership. The House resumed its regular calendar, though Republicans pushed back on some otherwise non-controversial Democratic bills.

Pearson and Jones could face potential sanctions for the incident moving forward.

"What is not okay is for members to try to take over the House and start something inside this chamber. That is never okay, that is not what being a member of the General Assembly is," Sexton said. "We will handle that in due course in the coming days or weeks as we move forward."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: After Nashville school shooting, hundreds demand gun reform in Nashville