Tennessee State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) is condemning a group of Republican state lawmakers for signing an open letter urging Governor Bill Lee to cancel the special legislative session that the governor called earlier this month.
In a statement released Thursday, Campbell – who is running to be the next Nashville Mayor – said, “After the bipartisan outcry that our entire nation witnessed from Tennessee citizens in the final weeks of our last session, it is appalling that state legislators are speaking out in opposition to our Governor’s call for a special session to address the epidemic of gun violence terrorizing our communities. The people we represent have called on us to pass common sense measures that have been proven to save lives while respecting the rights of lawful gun owners. There is no higher calling than protecting the lives of our children.”
Campbell added, “The strength of community and character we’ve seen from the Covenant community in the aftermath of that terrible day warrants action, and the Governor is calling on us to do our job!”
On Wednesday, State Representative Bryan Richey (R-Maryville) issued an open letter to Lee calling on him to cancel the special legislative session scheduled for August to “strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights.”
State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) and State Representatives Ed Butler (R-Rickman), Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill), and Chirs Hurt (R-Halls) have since signed on to the letter, which is open for any other legislator to sign on at any point.
Richey’s letter acknowledges that while Lee has the constitutional authority to call a special session, the event would be a “political event to put pressure on conservative Republicans to grow government and ignore the will of their constituents in service to the national woke mob that will descend on the Capitol.”
The general assembly’s forthcoming special session – scheduled to convene on August 21 – comes after Lee called for Red Flag Laws in response to the March 27 shooting at The Presbyterian Covenant School in Nashville, to which Republican legislators said they will not introduce legislation for.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Heidi Campbell” by Heidi Campbell. Background Photo “Tennessee General Assembly” by Tennessee General Assembly.
Senator Campbell, you did not really think that your Republican colleagues would allow such a special session in August, OR, that Governor Lee was really serious about having such a session. These Tennessee Republicans are totally untrustworthy!
Release the shooters writings……….the “special session” will be a zone of trouble.
This woman is an idiot Democrat.
So nothing new!
Senator Campbell is pandering to people that believe government is the answer. Society must have a means by which to protect itself from evil, less evil prevail.
Every time my eyes see Heidi I fully understand what Joseph Biden meant by a Dog Faced Pony Soldier.
I’ve seen the way people in Nashville drive. I live here.
The day before the “Covenant shooting” 6 children under age 18 in TN died in a single automobile crash here in TN. For more than a decade the number one killer of children in this age group in the US has been automobiles (only changed during Covid). Maybe we need red flag car laws! We do not need Red Flag gun laws. We have common sense laws in place already. I would like to remind those calling for stricter gun laws that the right to bear automobiles is not defined anywhere in any constitution, and is not a natural right against which the government shall not infringe.
I have heard Democrats say Republicans are for killing children. Quite the opposite (we don’t even want them mutilated). I find that most Repubs are for defending the FREEDOM they are allotted on this issue based upon the inherent natural right.
I would also like to thank all those songwriters for the songs about the death of those 6 children the day before Covenant, all the prayers offered on the public front for the families of that tragedy, and to the news media for calling out the evil car manufacturers who make large capacity automobiles.