NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Democrats announced an eight-stop bus tour Monday ahead of the proposed special session.
“This is not new. The statistics are not new,” Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) said. “What is new is the opportunity to turn tragedy into policy action.”
The tour starts next week in Memphis and finishes on August 21 at the State Capitol in Nashville, the day the special session is set to start.
Democrats have been pushing for more gun control, but Republicans have snuffed out any substantial conversation for it.
In the House, Speaker Cameron Sexton told News 2 last week the state wouldn’t see any substantial gun reform.
“I think when I’m out in Tennessee in the rural and suburban areas, outside of Davidson County, people do not want enhanced orders of protection,” he said.
With that knowledge, we asked the Democrats why they’re bothering to spend money on the tour given that they’re essentially at the mercy of their colleagues across the aisle.
“They don’t control the state. The people of Tennessee control this state. They are elected officials,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) said. “So, I would encourage them to join us and get out there and hear from the people who are electing them to office.”
Clemmons pointed to numerous polls showing heavy support for Gov. Bill Lee’s emergency relief protection order to remove guns from people who present a threat to themselves or others.
“Based on every poll I’ve seen, an overwhelming majority of Tennesseans want real, substantive action and substantive policy on this issue,” Clemmons said.
But Sexton pushed back on that and said polls aren’t necessarily a good indicator.
“Anybody can make a poll, make it say whatever based on whatever the question is, however they want to word it, right?” he said. “So, I think the thing is, it’s a question that you can’t just ask one way, you have to bullet it down to multiple questions.”
