Tennessee House may remove lawmakers for roles in gun control protest

Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Tennessee House on Monday introduced resolutions to expel three Democratic lawmakers for disorderly behavior: Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, Justin Jones of Nashville, and Justin Pearson of Memphis. Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said on Monday that the three lawmakers had already been stripped of their committee assignments. A vote on the resolutions is scheduled for Thursday. Expelling the lawmakers would be extraordinary for the Tennessee House, where only two House members have been expelled since the Civil War.

What exactly did the lawmakers do? The three led a protest on the House floor calling for gun control legislation on Thursday of last week, sharing a bullhorn while observers in the gallery joined in with the lawmakers’ chants. Hundreds of protesters were gathered at the Capitol after a shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville killed six people last week.

Dig deeper: Listen to Lauren Canterberry and Kim Henderson’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about grief on the ground in Nashville.