The spokesgun for the Tennessee chapter of Guns United Against Gun Control applauded the GOP-controlled House of Representatives for its decisive action to draw attention away from gun violence.
Tennessee House expels two Democrats amid gun reform protests
House Republicans in Tennessee voted to expel two of three Democratic members of the House for “disorderly behavior” over anti-gun protests.
Scott L. Hall, USA TODAY
The Republican-led Tennessee legislature responded to a recent Nashville school shooting by spending all day Thursday kicking two Black Democratic lawmakers out of office, a decision that thrilled guns in the state and across the country.
Speaking from an unlocked closet outside a child’s room in a suburban Nashville home, the spokesgun for the Tennessee chapter of Guns United Against Gun Control applauded the GOP-controlled House of Representatives for its decisive action to draw attention away from gun violence.
“This is a great day for us,” the Daniel Defense DDM4V7 AR-15-style firearm said. “We had hoped our Republican friends in the legislature would do the bare minimum in response to the Covenant School shooting. But never in our wildest dreams did we think they’d find a way to do less than nothing. Heck, they shifted the whole conversation from guns to racism!”
Tennessee continues doing nothing about gun violence – expels Justin Jones, Justin Pearson instead
Less the two weeks after a shooter fired 152 rounds and killed three children and three adults at a Nashville elementary school, the GOP lawmakers aimed their ire on three Democrats who last week held a brief gun-control protest on the chamber floor, violating House rules.
Reps. Justin Jones, of Black and Filipino descent, and Justin Pearson, who’s Black, were expelled from the General Assembly by the Republican majority. Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is white, survived the vote and when asked why said: “It might have to do with the color of our skin.”
Moments after she said that, thousands of people watching the proceedings in Tennessee and around the world said, in unison: “Yep.”
Republicans basically booted two of the ‘Tennessee Three’ because they talked too loud
A Ruger LCP MAX pistol on the hip of a vocal National Rifle Association member standing outside the Tennessee statehouse Thursday said it felt relief and optimism in the wake of the expulsions: “Seeing a large group of fragile white lawmakers whose lives are defined almost entirely by fear that the days of white, male dominance in American society are nearing an end vote to expel two Black lawmakers because they talked too loud? Wow. I mean, there’s just no doubt this helps us.”
Rather than work toward solutions to the epidemic of gun violence that recently destroyed lives and forever traumatized children at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, the conservative lawmakers focused on the more important crime committed by the three Democrats: Not following the rules of decorum.
On March 30, hundreds of predominately young protesters were in the Capitol to press lawmakers to pass gun-control legislation in the hope they might be able to keep living. Three House Democrats joined in the protest from the front of the chamber, with Jones using a small bullhorn to chant: “No action, no peace!”
No children or adults were killed during the lawmakers’ brief protest.
‘They tried to shred our constitution with a bullhorn’ – LOL!
“Well, you know, something really bad could’ve happened,” said a loaded GLOCK 19 that listened to the day’s proceedings from under the driver’s seat of a Chevy Tahoe in neighboring Kentucky. “What if Jones turned quickly and a non-Democrat was hit in the head with the bullhorn? That could cause a pretty serious bruise.”
Republican Rep. Gino Bulso said during the governing body’s successful daylong attempt to do literally anything except control guns: “They tried to shred our Constitution with a bullhorn.”
To which the Guns United Against Gun Control spokesgun said: “Lulz!”
The Ruger responded: “See, these men are very, very fragile. They need to be treated with great care. That small bullhorn frightened them, so rather than worrying about who can and can’t buy firearms like me, we should be worrying about the fact that it’s very upsetting for these white people to see Black people in positions of power, particularly if the Black people are saying things the broader public agrees with.”
A bad day for democracy in Tennessee was a great day for guns
During Thursday’s session, which again accomplished nothing that could stop the next horrific act of gun violence, Jones defended himself, telling fellow lawmakers: “Your extreme measure is an attempt to subvert the will of voters who democratically elected us as representatives to speak and to passionately fight for them.”
A Remington shotgun from the nearby city of Gallatin chuckled.
“Damn right!” it said. “The Republicans sent a clear message today. You talk about doing anything whatsoever to limit free and easy access to me or any of my fellow guns and rifles, you get the boot. Heh-heh. I love it.”
Prior to the first expulsion vote, Democratic Rep. Antonio Parkinson said: “We’re creating a circus. This is embarrassing. The world is watching us.”
The Ruger disagreed.
“I admire these Republicans’ resolve,” it said. “They’re focused on the matters that mean most to guns like me: Not regulating guns like me.”
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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