In Tennessee, Republican lawmakers expelled two Black Democratic state representatives who exercised their constitutional rights by joining a protest in the state Capitol in response to a mass shooting at a school. The stunning sight of White lawmakers condescendingly dismissing two young Black men should be a wake-up call.
The expulsion of two Black male lawmakers, but not a White female representative, in a state with a history of virulent racism should shock the conscience of all Americans. How did we get here?
The slaughter of six people at a Christian school in Tennessee last month spurred a large demonstration mostly by young people in Nashville. High school students walked out of class, and throngs went to the state Capitol.
Reuters reported: “More than a thousand people joined the protest organized by local mothers, packing the building’s rotunda and forcing highway patrol troopers to clear paths in the crowd for lawmakers to walk through.
“Demonstrators held aloft placards reading ‘No More Silence’ and ‘We have to do better’ while chanting ‘Do you even care?’ and ‘No more violence!’ ”
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It seems there is new energy and intensity in the generation that has grown up with lockdown drills and horror stories.
Rather than heed the public’s demands, Republican lawmakers voted to expel two members who peacefully protested. That’s rich for a party that claims people need guns to protect themselves from tyrannical government. It might be simpler to vote the tyrants out. (A retort from Rep. Justin J. Pearson, one of the expelled members, reminding Republicans that the United States was founded on protest should vault him into the national limelight.)
Republicans have shown their true colors — not only reflexively against lifesaving reforms but also thoroughly intolerant of dissent. The effort to short-circuit democracy predictably earned the scorn of everyone from the local ACLU to ordinary citizens to civil rights and gun-reform organizations around the country. (Even before the lawmakers’ expulsion, Students Demand Action and Moms Demand Action organized several hundred walkouts in 42 states and D.C. on Wednesday.)
Aside from the gross assault on democracy in Tennessee, Democrats have the national electorate on their side. Polling consistently shows sky-high support even among Republicans for common-sense gun reforms such as background checks, red-flag laws and raising the minimum age for gun purchases. Support for a total ban on semiautomatic weapons ebbs and flows but has generated strong support in states that have passed such laws.
And yet, some Republicans remain stubbornly opposed to public sentiment. They utter the same inane excuses after each mass school shooting. (Just have a single door! Home-school your kids!) Republican officials candidly admit they are not there to “fix” laws, even though doing so could save thousands of lives.
And despite opposition of almost 80 percent of residents in deep-red Florida, Republican presidential-wanna-be Gov. Ron DeSantis championed a bill to legalize permitless concealed carry in his state. The White House rightfully called him “shameful” for signing the bill behind closed doors.
Republicans would rather ignore data showing red states with lax gun laws have higher murder rates than blue states with stricter laws. (“Cumulatively, overall murder rates since 2000 were on average 23% higher in Trump-voting states,” a January report from the moderate Democratic think tank Third Way states. “For the past 21 years, the top 10 murder rate states have been dominated by reliably red states, namely Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri. Even when we removed the county with the largest city in Trump-voting states … murder rates were still significantly higher in these red states.”)
When states such as Connecticut passed strict gun laws, homicides went down. (One study found that “the law was associated with a 40% reduction in Connecticut’s firearm homicide rates during the first 10 years that the law was in place.”) If one really is pro-life, regulating or banning weapons of war that rip children’s bodies to shred might be a good place to start.
If gun-safety advocates were savvy, they would strike while the iron is hot, staging larger rallies and protests and putting gun safety — along with abortion and democracy — at the top of the list of concerns for the 2024 election.
Gun-safety activists and civil rights groups should embrace the message of the post-Dobbs activist community: Democracy still matters.
Ultimately, we have no democracy if the people cannot decide what laws they want to live under and whom they want to represent them. And if Republican officials refuse to listen to the voters, they should join the growing list of defeated Republican politicians.
The expulsion of two Black male lawmakers, but not a White female representative, in a state with a history of virulent racism should shock the conscience of all Americans. How did we get here?
The slaughter of six people at a Christian school in Tennessee last month spurred a large demonstration mostly by young people in Nashville. High school students walked out of class, and throngs went to the state Capitol.
Reuters reported: “More than a thousand people joined the protest organized by local mothers, packing the building’s rotunda and forcing highway patrol troopers to clear paths in the crowd for lawmakers to walk through.
“Demonstrators held aloft placards reading ‘No More Silence’ and ‘We have to do better’ while chanting ‘Do you even care?’ and ‘No more violence!’ ”
Follow Jennifer Rubin's opinionsFollow
It seems there is new energy and intensity in the generation that has grown up with lockdown drills and horror stories.
Rather than heed the public’s demands, Republican lawmakers voted to expel two members who peacefully protested. That’s rich for a party that claims people need guns to protect themselves from tyrannical government. It might be simpler to vote the tyrants out. (A retort from Rep. Justin J. Pearson, one of the expelled members, reminding Republicans that the United States was founded on protest should vault him into the national limelight.)
Republicans have shown their true colors — not only reflexively against lifesaving reforms but also thoroughly intolerant of dissent. The effort to short-circuit democracy predictably earned the scorn of everyone from the local ACLU to ordinary citizens to civil rights and gun-reform organizations around the country. (Even before the lawmakers’ expulsion, Students Demand Action and Moms Demand Action organized several hundred walkouts in 42 states and D.C. on Wednesday.)
Aside from the gross assault on democracy in Tennessee, Democrats have the national electorate on their side. Polling consistently shows sky-high support even among Republicans for common-sense gun reforms such as background checks, red-flag laws and raising the minimum age for gun purchases. Support for a total ban on semiautomatic weapons ebbs and flows but has generated strong support in states that have passed such laws.
And yet, some Republicans remain stubbornly opposed to public sentiment. They utter the same inane excuses after each mass school shooting. (Just have a single door! Home-school your kids!) Republican officials candidly admit they are not there to “fix” laws, even though doing so could save thousands of lives.
And despite opposition of almost 80 percent of residents in deep-red Florida, Republican presidential-wanna-be Gov. Ron DeSantis championed a bill to legalize permitless concealed carry in his state. The White House rightfully called him “shameful” for signing the bill behind closed doors.
Republicans would rather ignore data showing red states with lax gun laws have higher murder rates than blue states with stricter laws. (“Cumulatively, overall murder rates since 2000 were on average 23% higher in Trump-voting states,” a January report from the moderate Democratic think tank Third Way states. “For the past 21 years, the top 10 murder rate states have been dominated by reliably red states, namely Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri. Even when we removed the county with the largest city in Trump-voting states … murder rates were still significantly higher in these red states.”)
When states such as Connecticut passed strict gun laws, homicides went down. (One study found that “the law was associated with a 40% reduction in Connecticut’s firearm homicide rates during the first 10 years that the law was in place.”) If one really is pro-life, regulating or banning weapons of war that rip children’s bodies to shred might be a good place to start.
If gun-safety advocates were savvy, they would strike while the iron is hot, staging larger rallies and protests and putting gun safety — along with abortion and democracy — at the top of the list of concerns for the 2024 election.
Gun-safety activists and civil rights groups should embrace the message of the post-Dobbs activist community: Democracy still matters.
Ultimately, we have no democracy if the people cannot decide what laws they want to live under and whom they want to represent them. And if Republican officials refuse to listen to the voters, they should join the growing list of defeated Republican politicians.
