Tennessee Republicans Pass Law Allowing Teachers To Be Armed - Democrats Cry "Fascism"
Tennessee House Republicans on Tuesday passed legislation to allow some trained teachers and school staff to carry firearms despite aggressive opposition from Democrats and gun control advocates calling for the bill to be defeated. The bill is all but guaranteed to become law within weeks, as Gov. Bill Lee can either sign it or allow it to become law without his signature. Lee has never vetoed a bill.
The law requires criminal and mental health background checks of prospective teachers along with training courses and approval from school administrators. Democrats railed against the bill, suggesting that training courses are not enough and that it was "unfair" to burden teachers with the job of defending their classrooms from potential assailants. This argument is strange because teachers are already burdened with the job of protecting students from harm (not to mention their own lives), they just haven't had the means to do that job until now.
Democrats also stated that armed teachers would "lead to tragedy," with expectations that merely having a gun in or near a school would inevitably cause a shooting with the teacher at fault. Of course, if a teacher wanted to come to school armed to commit a crime, there's nothing stopping them anyway (except perhaps another armed teacher).
Angry protesters screamed "blood on your hands" when the bill was passed by the House as they attempted to disrupt proceedings. Protesters were eventually cleared from the building by police. Representative Justin Jones, a Democrat and activist politician who has been the subject of multiple expulsions from the House, tried to film the event with his cell phone while chanting along with protester and was removed. Democrats accused Tennessee Republicans of "fascism."
Tennessee Republicans just cut off debate and passed a bill to arm teachers in our schools.
— Rep. Justin Jones (@brotherjones_) April 23, 2024
The public chanted “Blood on your hands!” as the Speaker ordered troopers to clear the gallery.
This is what fascism looks like. pic.twitter.com/9mg67oWMxM
And here we find the disconnect that anti-gun advocates don't grasp: They seem to believe that the mere presence of a gun will automatically trigger violence, as if it has magical powers to attract and inspire evil. In reality, the problem is evil people, not "evil" objects. There's nothing stopping a bad person from acquiring and using a firearm for terrible purposes at any place of their choosing. Gun free zones only prevent good people from carrying.
Furthermore, why is it that Democrats rabidly defend pornography and sexualized propaganda in schools, but they're aghast at the notion of teachers being trained to defend children from violent attackers? One might start to think that Democrats want school shootings to continue, but why would that be...?
Keep in mind that the passage of the bill comes one year after the mass shooting at the Christian Covenant School in Nashville. The shooting was perpetrated by Audrey Hale, a far-left trans activists who was allegedly motivated to make a political statement. Her manifesto which was confiscated by the FBI still has yet to be released. Suspicions abound that this is only being done because Hale was part of the LGBT community.
Not surprisingly, leftist activists and Democrats alike defended Audrey Hale as "just another victim" of the shooting while some even argued that the murders were justified because of Tennessee's attempts to stop transgender surgeries for minors.
When common sense is labeled "fascism" the likelihood of reconciliation between leftists and conservatives grows dim. Is it only "democracy" when leftists get their way? Are Democrats really outraged by the idea of teachers being able to effectively save the lives of students or act as a deterrent so that potential mass shooters never consider going through with an attack? Or, are they outraged because they secretly fear that the strategy of armed teachers will work?
Democrats ignore mass shootings in minority neighborhoods all the time because these murders don't serve their purposes. What they want, what they need, are shootings where the tragedy can be turned into political capital. Their true intent is to achieve gun confiscation, and if there are no more school shootings because teachers are armed, then they'll no longer have the leverage they desire.