GUN SAFETY

Victory in Tennessee Expulsion Votes

GOP lawmakers expose their denial, weakness, desperation

Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Pearson, Justin Jones at March 30 protest / John Partipilo, Tennessee Lookout

The April 6 expulsion of two Black Tennessee lawmakers for joining, from the House floor, a peaceful gun-safety protest exposed so many troubling realities:

• Unwillingness of GOP lawmakers to address public demands for gun regulation after six deaths at a Nashville church school on March 27.
• Vindictive power by a supermajority shaped by partisan gerrymandering.
• Disrespect of voters with a rare rejection of duly elected leaders over decorum rules.
• Racism in expelling lawmakers of color; the third, a white woman, kept her seat by one vote.
• Outsized influence of rural lawmakers over those representing cities.

The spectacle that attracted national attention targeted three Democrats: Gloria Johnson, 60, an outspoken lawmaker from Knoxville; Justin Thomas, 27, a racial-justice organizer from Nashville; and Justin Pearson, 28, an environmental activist from Memphis.

They pulled back the curtain to expose the fragility, fear and hatred behind all the obstinance and overreaction. The gallery and halls of the Capitol were full of citizens — mostly white women and young adults— who…