Vice President Kamala Harris made a last-minute trip to Tennessee on Friday to call for tougher gun laws and criticize the Republican-controlled state House, which expelled two Black Democratic lawmakers a day earlier for their role in a protest calling for more gun control after a Nashville school shooting.
Harris addressed a congregation at Nashville’s historically Black Fisk University that the Tennessee Three—removed Reps. She said Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson—who just avoided expulsion—were calm and repressed for advocating for schoolchildren’s lives.
Harris stated, “Let’s remember the fundamental problem is battling for our children’s protection. “It’s been years now where kids are taught to read and write and hide in a closet and be silent if there’s a mass shooter at their school, where our children, who have God’s potential to learn and lead, go to school in fear.”
She advocated background checks, red flag regulations, and assault weapon bans.
“Let’s not fall for the false choice—either you’re for the Second Amendment or you want reasonable gun safety laws,” Harris added. “We can and should.”
Harris met privately with Jones, Pearson, Johnson, other political figures, and youth lobbying for stricter gun control legislation.
Students and others waited down the street to enter the Memorial Chapel before the event. Some young Black ladies donned Alpha Kappa Alpha sweaters, Harris’s sorority.
“It’s fantastic to see someone from my organization accomplishing big and incredible things,” said Jasmyn Thrash.
When Harris came, Nashville Metro Councilperson Zulfat Suara told the gathering that the expulsions “teach us precisely what we need to know about how the state regards young Black males” who speak up. But, she continued, “Just like John Lewis and Diane Nash did many years ago, we too will resist.”
