Tennessee statehouse expels Democrats for gun control proteston April 7, 2023 at 12:33 am

The Tennessee statehouse has expelled two Democratic politicians who led a gun control protest that halted legislative proceedings last week.

In a rare move, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 72-25 to expel Justin Jones and 69-26 to remove Justin Pearson.

But an expulsion vote failed against a third Democratic lawmaker, Gloria Johnson, who joined the demonstration.

Crowds of protesters have flooded the State Capitol since a school shooting.

The 27 March attack at Nashville’s Covenant School killed six, including three children.

US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, slammed the expulsions as “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent”.

Justin Jones told the BBC that the move had left 78,000 people in one of the state’s most diverse districts without representation.

He said an “extreme republican supermajority, almost completely a white caucus” had expelled the “two youngest black lawmakers because we stood demanding action on gun violence”.

“The nation and the world are surprised and should be shocked because what they said was that democracy does not matter in Tennessee,” Mr Jones added.

The expulsions are the first such actions taken without the support of both parties in Tennessee’s modern history.

A resolution to expel Ms Johnson fell one vote short of the required two-thirds majority. The margin was 65-30. Her supporters in the chamber cheered.

Mr Jones, 27, and Mr Pearson, 28, are both black. Ms Johnson, who is white, suggested Republicans didn’t expel her because of the colour of her skin.Political analysts said it may have been because she did not use a megaphone during last week’s protest, unlike her two colleagues.

Lawmakers had argued for hours on Thursday over the moves. Audible within the chamber were the shouts of protesters who still crowd the statehouse.

During the protest on Thursday of last week, as hundreds of pro-gun control demonstrators converged on the statehouse, the three Democrats took to the House floor, chanting: “No action, no peace.”The chamber’s proceedings were brought to a standstill for nearly an hour.

The three lawmakers acknowledged they broke House rules by speaking without being formally recognised, but insisted their actions did not warrant expulsion.

But Republicans said the trio had brought “disorder and dishonour to the House”.

On Thursday, some Republican members said the Democrats’ actions amounted to an insurrection, with House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, comparing the incident to the Capitol Riots.

“What they did today was equivalent, at least equivalent, maybe worse depending on how you look at it, to doing an insurrection in the State Capitol,” he said.

Another Republican legislator, Gino Bulso, said the three Democrats had “effectively conducted a mutiny.”

Mr Bulso said of Mr Jones: “The gentleman shows no remorse. He does not even recognise that what he did was wrong.”

But the two ousted lawmakers could soon return to the House since expulsion does not disqualify an ex-representative from running for office. A county governing body also has the power to appoint an interim representative in the case of a vacancy.

So the expelled lawmakers could be appointed to fill their empty seats in the interim, then run for re-election and be back in the General Assembly within months, according to the Tennessean newspaper.

Expulsion votes are exceptionally rare. In Tennessee, the House of Representatives has only twice voted to expel members. In 1980 it removed a sitting lawmaker who was convicted of soliciting a bribe and in 2016 a majority whip who was facing allegations of sexual misconduct was expelled.

But those expulsions had strong support from both parties.

Before Thursday’s votes began, House members debated more than 20 bills, some relating to school safety.

Throughout the discussion, Mr Jones rose to speak several times, accusing his colleagues of passing “band-aid” legislation in response to mass shootings.

“It is not action that will make our students safe,” Mr Jones said. “I think we, as elected officials, have a moral responsibility to listen to these young people who are on the frontlines who are terrified, who are here, crying and pleading for their lives.”

In response, Republican Mark White – visibly aggravated – told Mr Jones: “Look at me. Look at the other 97 [lawmakers]. This is exactly what we’re trying to do.”

Mr White continued: “I have been up here for 14 years, you have been in this assembly for two months, three months.”

Tennessee has some of the most relaxed gun control laws in the country. In 2021, the state passed a measure that allows residents over the age of 21 to carry handguns – concealed and unconcealed – without a permit.

Lawmakers and gun rights groups are working to lower that age to 18.

There is no system of universal background checks and no “red flag” laws, which are designed to allow authorities to temporarily seize legally owned guns from those found to be a danger to themselves or others.

Police said the Nashville shooter, who opened fire last week at the privately run Christian school, had legally purchased seven firearms on separate occasions.

Three of the weapons were used to kill three nine-year-old children and three members of the school staff.