Johnathan Walker:Tennessee Senate passes bill allowing teachers to carry guns amid vocal protests

NASHVILLE,Johnathan Walker Tenn. — Tennessee Senate Republicans passed legislation Tuesday that would allow public K-12 teachers and school staff to carry concealed handguns on school grounds — despite vocal protests from Covenant School families and others seeking stricter gun-control measures.

Senate Bill 1325 allows Tennessee school faculty or staff to carry a concealed handgun on the grounds of their school. Tennessee law already allows school resource officers, assigned through an agreement between local school districts and law enforcement, to carry firearms on campus.

The measure passed in a 26-5 vote that fell along party lines. Discussion over the bill halted as a group of around 200 gun-reform advocates voiced their opposition in the Senate gallery, holding signs and snapping their fingers in support or hissing in dissent as Senators debated the bill.

The school district's director of schools, the school principal and the chief of the "appropriate" law enforcement agency must sign off on a staff member's authority to carry a concealed handgun.

Tennessee state Sen. Paul Bailey sponsored the legislation and said Tuesday that a school principal could make a blanket decision not to participate and notify a director of schools they don't want to allow any teachers to carry. But the legislation itself does not directly outline this opt-out mechanism that Bailey referred to and rather directs school administrators to consider each certification individually.

What are lawmakers saying about the bill

The measure isn't yet law.

The House companion bill, HB 1202, technically only needs a final vote in the lower chamber after passing through committees last year. The bill is currently being "held on the desk," a procedural term that means the bill is in a holding pattern unless someone moves to remove it from the table.

Republicans have overwhelmingly supported the bill, which was initially filed in January 2023 but has been cited as a potential school security measure in the wake of The Covenant School shooting last March. Democrats oppose the measure, which has also attracted hundreds of gun-reform protestors who oppose a GOP supermajority-led trend of expanding access to firearms in Tennessee.

Republicans argue it's a needed security option for schools that have been unable to hire a school resource officer or more rural schools where law enforcement response might be delayed during a security crisis.

Shortly after the Covenant School shooting last year, state officials approved new funding to place a school resource officer at every public school in the state. But personnel shortages have slowed the placement, and hundreds of Tennessee schools still lack an SRO.

“We are not trying to shoot a student but protect a student from an active shooter whose sole purpose is to get in that school and kill people,” sponsor Tennessee state Sen. Ken Yager said Tuesday. "In counties like I serve, rural counties, where they may only have two deputies on a shift, it might take 20 or 30 minutes to get to that school. What havoc can be wreaked in that 30-minute period? This bill tries to fix that problem and protect children."

Tennessee Democrats sharply criticized the bill, arguing it was "irresponsible" and could put students at risk to have guns in the classroom, open to be stolen or misused in a panicked crisis situation.

"The level of irresponsibility here is befuddling," Tennessee state Sen. Jeff Yarbro said. "We're sending people to a 40-hour — one week, less time than kids spend in summer camp — to learn how to handle a combat situation that veteran law enforcement officers have trouble dealing with. It is complicated, to say the least, for someone to handle a firearm accurately, responsibly, effectively with an active shooter and literally hundreds of innocent children in the area. And we're letting people do that with a week's training."

Covenant mom calls Senate's actions 'appalling'

After repeated warnings about disruptions, Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally called for state troopers to clear the gallery. He permitted a group of mothers of Covenant School students to stay, saying they had not caused a disruption.

Beth Gebhard, whose son and daughter attend the Covenant School in Nashville, said her children were there last spring as a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adult staff members. She watched the Senate proceedings Tuesday with tears in her eyes, alongside several other mothers of students at the school.

She staunchly opposes the bill. She said her children, 9-year-old Ava and 12-year-old Hudson, survived the shooting because of well-trained teachers and police officers doing their job. She can't imagine a teacher having to also deal with confronting a shooter, especially one armed with an assault-style rifle.

"A handgun will do nothing against that," she said. "If what had happened on March 27 had gone down the way that it did with a teacher armed with a handgun attempting to put the perpetrator out, my children would likely be dead."

She called the lawmakers "cowardly" for clearing the gallery.

"If they are supposed to be representative of our voice and they are dismissing these people … they are not for us and it is appalling," she said, holding back tears. "It’s so upsetting. It makes me want to move."

Melissa Alexander and Mary Joyce, both mothers of students who attend Covenant, huddled with Gebhard after the vote. A Capitol building staff member who spotted the trio brought by a box of tissues, earning grateful smiles. 

"As mothers of survivors, all we can do is continue to show up and keep sharing our stories and hope that eventually they will listen to them and take our advice," Alexander said. "We have real experiences in these tragedies. We are the ones who have been there, experienced this and lived through the aftermath of it."