Hundreds of people gathered outside the Tennessee State Capitol on Thursday to call for urgent gun control reform in the aftermath of a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville that killed three children and three adults.
The shooting occurred on Monday after Audrey Hale, 28, who identified as transgender, entered the school and fired at random. The student victims are Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9. The adult victims are Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.
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The rally began around 8 a.m. on Thursday, with attendees holding signs and chanting, “What do we want? Gun control! When do we want it? Now!” The protest was organized by AWAKE, a nonprofit organization in Tennessee working to improve conditions in the state for women and children.
The organization’s goal was to bring everyone through security and into the Capitol’s rotunda before the House session at 9 a.m.
“Then we will sing and we will let our elected officials know we demand an end to gun violence and we want common sense gun laws in Tennessee,” the group’s message said on Facebook.
Hale was armed with two assault-style guns and a handgun, three of seven firearms that Hale had purchased legally. Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Chief John Drake said the parents only knew of one weapon and thought Hale had sold it.
In Tennessee, there are no requirements for background checks or training for handgun owners per state law. In July 2021, the Volunteer State enacted a law that allowed the carrying of handguns without a permit, concealed and unconcealed, for anyone over the age of 21.
Hundreds are gathered at the state Capitol in downtown Nashville following Monday’s Covenant School shooting. They’re chanting, holding signs and calling for gun reform. pic.twitter.com/VQqLvsiJBP
— Nashville Scene (@NashvilleScene) March 30, 2023
Demonstrators’ ages ranged from young children in strollers accompanied by parents and students in uniforms to young adults and adult community members calling for change. Protesters blocked the sidewalk and most of the road in front of the state Capitol as the rally grew in size.
At one point, the swell of the crowd forced House members to walk through a narrow path created for them while protesters chanted their hopes for ending gun violence.
Several signs targeted Tennessee lawmakers, with one saying, “Do better, Tim,” referring to Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN)’s comment that “we’re not going to fix it” on Monday afternoon hours after the shooting. Another sign asked, “Where is Marsha?” referring to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
Blackburn and Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) are set to introduce legislation that would recruit veterans and retired law enforcement officers to become safety officials in schools to prevent future tragedies. As a private Christian school, the Covenant School does not employ school resources officers.
Investigators are still working to piece together a motive for Hale’s attack at Covenant School. So far, police have found no evidence to support that there were problems between the school and Hale, who attended the Covenant School for third and fourth grade.
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Drake said it is possible the shooter may have carried a “sense of resentment” toward the school but that it is not clear why. Hale was also being treated by a doctor for an “emotional disorder,” he said.
The Covenant School shooting is the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022, which left 19 students and two teachers dead.
