After last year’s massacre at a Texas elementary school, which prompted calls for new gun restrictions, Republican-ruled states across the country moved in another direction.
One of them was Tennessee, where the governor insisted that tougher gun laws would never deter criminals.
“We can’t control what they do,” Governor Bill Lee said.
By contrast, Tennessee lawmakers have made guns more accessible, proposing bills this year to further arm teachers and allow college students to carry guns on campus, among other measures.
Then came Monday’s attack at Nashville’s Covenant School, where a person carrying multiple weapons killed six people, including three children.
The same day, a federal judge signed a state agreement allowing 18-year-olds to carry a handgun without a permit.
Amid this gruesome cadence of multiple massacres that have prompted calls for more comprehensive gun controls, state House Republicans have been continually expanding access to guns.
In Kentucky, Ohio, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia, Republicans have pushed this year to limit gun-free zones, eliminated background checks and red flag laws that seek to take guns away from those who pose a danger to themselves. or other people.
In 25 states, a permit is not required to carry a handgun — with nine more added in 2020.
“That’s been the fastest expansion of gun rights at the state level that we’ve ever seen,” said Jacob Charles, an adjunct professor specializing in gun law at Pepperdine Caruso Law School.
Perhaps nowhere has the shift to expanding gun access been seen more than in Tennessee, a state whose gun policies typify Republicans’ rapid move to the right on gun regulation.
