“Wisdom is Better Than Weapons of War”

School shootings are preventable, not inevitable. What we choose to allow is what will continue.

Image Credit: Getty Images

On April 20, 1999, two teenagers murdered 13 people and injured more than 20 others at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Twenty-four years later, there have been 376 more confirmed school shootings.

At least 623 children, educators, and staff have been killed or injured, and more than 348,000 students have been exposed to gun violence in their schools.  Although most school shootings are committed by white perpetrators, Hispanic students are twice as likely to experience campus gun violence. For Black students, the chances increase more than three-fold.

Teenagers are responsible for more than half the country’s school shootings. The median age for school shooters is 16. In cases where the source of the gun used could be determined, 86% came from the homes of friends, relatives, or parents. 91% of school shootings are carried out by current or former students of the affected campus. In addition to research into the negative effects that active shooter drills have on student mental health, there is increasing concern these drills are teaching the next generation of shooters how to pre-plan their attacks and evade security.

The frequency of school shootings has escalated significantly in recent years. Through 2017, the United States averaged 11 school shootings per year. In 2018, that figure jumped to 30. There were 51 school shootings in 2022 alone, more than in any year since these statistics have been tracked. There have been 13 school shootings in the first three months of 2023, the most recent happening on March 27 at a private, Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.

Although it has the tenth-highest rate of gun deaths in the country, Tennessee does not:

• Have a waiting period to purchase a firearm.

• Require background checks for private gun purchases or transfers.

• Require permits or licenses to purchase or carry firearms.

• Prohibit the purchase and possession of semi-automatic assault-style weapons.

• Prohibit or regulate the purchase or sale of high-capacity magazines.

• Require a permit or training to carry an open or concealed handgun.

• Require gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms.

Tennessee also does not:

• Have Extreme Risk Protection (“Red Flag”) laws allowing law enforcement to obtain a court order temporarily removing guns from a person at risk of harming themselves or others, and prohibiting the person from buying new guns until the order is lifted.

• Require law enforcement to trace the chain of custody on guns recovered from crime scenes to prevent gun trafficking.

• Require new handgun models sold in the state to include childproofing technology.

• Require a locking device or child-resistant storage for unattended firearms.

• Impose a penalty on someone who fails to secure an unattended firearm and leaves it accessible to an unsupervised minor.

• Allow towns and cities to enact their own local gun laws in addition to state statutes.

So, what is the Tennessee Legislature doing in response to the deaths of three 9-year-old students and three adults at The Covenant School?

March 27, 2023: When interviewed on the day of the shooting, Representative Tim Burchett (R-2^nd District) told a reporter “We’re not gonna fix it.” By contrast, just 20 days earlier, Burchett had spoken in favor of Tennessee’s ban on public drag shows by saying “We don’t put up with that crap in Tennessee…and the rest of the country should follow suit.”

March 29, 2023: Senate Judiciary Chairman Todd Gardenhire (District 10-Chattanooga) announced that no gun-related bills would be taken up during the rest of the current legislative session. He also said he was “embarrassed” that “people with other agendas” wanted to make the Covenant School shooting incident “a political issue and take advantage of a complete tragedy.” Meanwhile, student protestors in Nashville and surrounding towns were coordinating with March for Our Lives and other youth-led organizations to hold walkout protests the at their respective schools, followed by a joint march to the state Capital to demand gun control reform.

“It’s not drag queens. It’s not books. It’s not Black history, it’s not trans rights—GUNS are KILLING KIDS.” The Nashville school walk outs were scheduled for 10:13 AM, the time the Covenant School shooter opened fire. Image via Twitter screenshot.

March 30, 2023: More than a thousand students, parents, and teachers marched on the state Capitol to demand common sense gun legislation, including an assault weapons ban, red flag laws, and mandatory background checks. The demonstrations progressed from the rotunda, into the galleries, and eventually onto the House floor. Representatives Justin Jones (D-52, Nashville), Justin Pearson (D-86, Memphis), and Gloria Johnson (D-90, Knoxville), who have since become known as “The Tennessee Three,” joined the crowd in chants of “enough is enough,” “power to the people,” and “no action, no peace.” When their microphones were cut off, Representatives Jones and Pearson used a megaphone to address the crowd.  

"We don't want to be up here, but we have no choice but to find a way... to disrupt business as normal, because business as normal is our children dying.”
 - Rep. Justin Pearson

House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) called the three members’ participation in floor protests “an insurrection” and accused them of trying to “incite riots of violence.” He also dismissed the youth protests inside the Capitol building as a publicity stunt, claiming “their real goal today was to try to be arrested and have pictures of them being walked out by Troopers in handcuffs.” Contrary to Speaker Sexton’s description, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office reported that while a handful of demonstrators were removed from the gallery, no arrests, deaths, injuries, property damage, assaults on law enforcement officers, or attempts to overturn an election occurred during the Tennessee House protests.

April 3, 2023: State Rep. William Lamberth (R-District 44) told a group of student protestors converged outside his office to again demand a ban on AR-15s and other assault-style weapons:

“It’s not about this one gun. If there is a firearm out there that you’re comfortable being shot with, please show me which one it is. There’s not. There’s not. Right there…you can ban that specific gun and you are going to do almost nothing to improve y’all’s safety. I’m sorry that’s a fact.”

Actually, that’s not a fact. The federal Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act of 1994 banned the manufacture, sale, or possession of certain semi-automatic firearms, as well as large capacity magazines. The Act expired in 2004 in accordance with its 10-year sunset provision. Since then, 44% of mass shootings have involved at least one semi-automatic rifle. Ten of the 17 deadliest mass shootings in the United States since 2012 have specifically involved AR-15s.

Representative Lamberth doesn’t have to ask himself which gun he’d like to be shot with at his workplace. Firearms of all kinds are completely banned from the State Capitol building.