More than two months after 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale shot and killed three children and three staff members at the Covenant Presbyterian School, Nashville’s Metropolitan Council is planning to hold hearings on gun violence as a “public health issue.”
The Public Health and Safety Committee will conduct the first special meeting on gun safety, co-hosted with Education Committee Chair Zulfat Suara, on June 14, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Guests will include representatives from Metro Nashville Public Schools, the Metro Nashville Police Department, and the Nashville Fire Department. State Representatives Bob Freeman (D-Nashville) and Caleb Hemmer (D-Nashville) will provide council members with updates on gun control legislation efforts and the Tennessee State Legislature Special Session on gun laws slated for late August.
A second meeting is scheduled for June 21 at the Hillsboro High School Auditorium. Public Health and Safety Committee Chairman Jeff Syracuse will host a moderated panel discussion with gun control advocates Daniel Chapin, founder/president of the Uvalde Foundation for Kids, Moms Demand Action, and Shaundelle Brooks, co-founder/president of the Akilah Dasilva Foundation.
“My goal is that if nothing else, every parent and every child will know their local leaders are doing everything possible to make schools safe places,” Syracuse told Axios.
As the left-leaning news outlet notes, “the local work could also keep a new crop of gun-reform activists engaged on the issue in the lead-up to the special session.”
As The Tennessee Star reported, far-left agitators have plans to disrupt the Tennessee special session on “public safety,” which critics say is really an effort by Governor Bill Lee to pass red flag laws and other gun control measures. The Star earlier this month obtained an audio recording of gun control activists laying out what the political left is planning — from legitimate protesting up to and including possible acts of domestic terrorism.
During the May 13 meeting among the far-left, the agitators discussed plans to riot at the Nashville office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), protest at Amazon and Lee’s business, Lee Corporation, disrupt Metro Council proceedings, and harass Republican lawmakers.
The governor has apparently taken a meeting on gun control with far-left activist and State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) but would not confirm or deny that report to The Star. Lee’s office has yet to respond to questions about the planned riots.
Meanwhile, Metro Nashville continues to block the release of the manifesto and related documents of Hale, who identified as a transgender male. A lawsuit filed by multiple plaintiffs — including The Star and The Tennessean — seeks the release of the writings of the Covenant killer. The Star has also sued the FBI, which is assisting Metro Nashville Police.
The delay in making public the Hale manifesto has led to speculation, including theories that President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is playing politics with the investigation — and the records attached to it. As someone who identified as transgender, Hale doesn’t fit the left’s usual narrative of a school shooter, critics say.
Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles ordered a show cause hearing for June 8, requiring Metro Nashville to defend its decision to block the release of the public records.
– – –
M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Covenant School” by Metro Nashville PD.
There’s a common denominator in 92.3% if all “gun violence”.
Why don’t they hold a “sick, deranged person violence” conference instead? Guns don’t commit violence any more than knives, hammers, nail guns, bats or rocks do.