Vote takes place days after deadly Nashville school shooting, with advocates calling possible ousting ‘undemocratic’.
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The Republican-controlled Tennessee state legislature is set to vote on expelling three Democrats who took part in a gun control protest at the state house in the wake of last week’s deadly school shooting in Nashville.
Protesters began to gather early Thursday at the state capitol before the vote, which is expected to pass easily with Republicans controlling 75 seats to Democrats’ 25 in the 100-seat chamber.
In the resolutions calling for their expulsion, Republicans accused the Democrats – Representatives Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson – of engaging in “disorderly behavior” by taking part in the protest, saying they “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions”.
The trio had used a bullhorn on Friday to lead protesters in chanting demands for stricter gun laws in the state, days after an assailant welding two “assault-style weapons” and a pistol fatally shot three 9-year-old students at three adults at the Covenant School, a private Christian primary school in the city. The protest briefly halted legislative proceedings.
A two-thirds majority vote is required for the expulsion.
More than 200 state legislators from across the country, in letter to Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, called the possible removal “anti-democratic”.
“From Tennessee, to Oklahoma, to Florida, we are witnessing courageous state lawmakers across the country standing with the people and defending our freedoms,” the legislators wrote. “Actions to strip lawmakers away from their duly-elected positions undermine the people’s will and represent a direct threat to our democracy everywhere”.
If expelled, it would be the first time a legislator has been removed from the chamber without facing investigation or accusations of serious misconduct since the Civil War era. It would also represent the first partisan removal of legislators.
Together, the three lawmakers represent nearly 200,000 people.
One legislator was previously expelled in 1980 for soliciting a bribe in exchange for blocking legislation, and another was expelled in 2016 after being accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women. Both those expulsions were made with overwhelming, bipartisan votes.
In a tweet, one of the state representatives facing removal, Jones, said, “It’s morally insane that a week after a mass shooting took six lives in our community, House Republicans only response is to expel us for standing with our constituents to call for gun control.”
On Wednesday, he wrote, “We’ll not be intimidated. THE PEOPLE are demanding we act to stop kids from being murdered in school.”
Speaking on MSNBC Thursday morning, Representative Johnson, a former high school teacher said the shooting showed the priorities of Republicans in the chamber.
“After this shooting in Nashville, where we lost Evelyn, Hallie, William, Cynthia, Katherine and Mike,” she said, referring to the Covenant school victims by their first names, “the first action this body took was not to do something about gun violence, but to expel three members who spoke up against gun violence.”
Johnson has said she plans to re-introduce a so-called “Red Flag” gun bill this year that would allow authorities to take guns away from people in mental crisis.
Nashville’s shooting has again prompted national calls for increased gun control, with US President Joe Biden calling for reforms, including a federal ban on assault-style weapons, while admitting any efforts would rely on the US Congress breaking a deadlock on the entrenched issue.
Republican leaders in Congress have said in the wake of the latest attack that it was premature to act on gun reforms, instead stressing a need for increased mental health support and school safety.
On Wednesday, thousands of students walked out of classrooms across the country to call for actions. The gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety said about 300 demonstrations across 41 states were planned throughout the week.
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