Ahead of the just-concluded special session of the Tennessee General Assembly errantly called by Republican Governor Bill Lee to discuss what leftists call “gun reform” in response to “gun violence,” I outlined how Democrats use the coffins of murdered children as political fodder to advance their political agendas.

“Gun reform” is a euphemism for “gun control,” which is about gun confiscation and always has been. “Gun violence” is a euphemism for “cultural violence,” which is the actual problem, but Demos don’t want to touch that.

The good news is that this special session closed with more awareness about the safety of children and no infringement on the constitutional rights of Tennesseans. However, this political charade is a case study of leftist tactics, and conservatives in every Republican-controlled legislature across the nation should take note.

Governor Lee is a strong conservative, but in the wake of a gender-confused assailant’s attack on a Nashville Christian school in March, where she murdered six people, including three children, Lee got blindsided and carelessly set up Republican majorities in the House and Senate for a Democrat blitzkrieg.

A week after that attack, Joe Biden hosted three Tennessee legislators to elevate the visibility of their political agenda in Tennessee.

For the record, attacks on schools are very rare — more than 99% of ALL murder victims are NOT killed in “mass shooting” incidents in a school or any other location. But as long as sociopathic assailants have been murdering children, Democrats have been propping up the coffins of the dead as political soapboxes for promoting gun control. They are especially quick to do so when the victims are white, knowing they can invoke a strong response from their cadres of emotionally incontinent supporters — particularly their wealthy, white privilege Demo benefactors in the suburbs.

I note that Demos are quick to use murdered white children for their agenda despite the politically inconvenient truth that a grossly disproportionate number of murder victims nationwide are black men, women, and children, and almost all of their assailants are black. It is no small irony, then, that the two loudest legislative protesters were black.

We should have reasoned conversations about how to protect children. That includes all Americans, particularly our black brothers and sisters whom national Demos never mention because that discussion would quickly lead to the underlying cultural issues and the generations of leftist social policies that have created those issues.

Demos knew their proposals would get nowhere in the special session, but their intent was to create a public relations cluster setting up conservative legislators for election opposition based on their votes. But using the coffins of murdered children is a very crass and calculated strategy to co-opt emotions.

For a well-informed perspective on the legislative session, I turned to a highly esteemed Republican legislative analyst for his assessment. He responded as follows:

“Bad facts make bad law” is an unfortunate reality that has created many overreaching laws and bad court decisions. Such is the case with a horrible mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee on March 27, 2023. The facts of this case show that there was no indication or warning that this particular person would instigate such a horrific crime.

That notwithstanding, Governor Lee proposed new “red flag” laws that would permit judges to remove private citizens’ guns immediately upon evidence that a person “could be dangerous.” The defendant could show up at a hearing at a later time and try to regain their constitutional right to possess a firearm.

Hundreds of protesters at the Tennessee Capitol wanted gun control legislation — notably many of them were from out of state. The Republican leadership was not prepared for the protests, particularly the small number of protesters who were conservative Christians associated with The Covenant School. To their credit, the House leadership had no intention of passing a gun control measures. But the House leadership proceeded to file two dozen bills that would expand government power in a number of ways. Proposed legislation would expand government authority to require DNA swabs, require mental health professionals to turn on their patients, require more child offenses to be tried as adults, and spend tax dollars on more mental health services.

State House members represent districts with about 70,000 people and must run for election every two years. Accordingly, House members are much more susceptible to challenges, protests, and political whims. An impasse developed with House members wanting to pass everything but the gun control measures, none of which would have prevented the Covenant School murders, and leftist protesters wanting nothing short of gun control.

Fortunately, the State Senate also has a supermajority of Republicans. Its members represent much larger districts of 200,000+ people and are elected every four years. The State Senate is much less responsive to political charades and much more deliberative. The State Senate can afford to take their time in responding to an event or demand for new legislation.

The State Senate promptly killed all the Republican House legislation by referring every House bill to a study committee (which may or may not ever meet at some undisclosed time in the future). This is the polite way to kill a bill without voting it down. Republican House leadership was furious. None of their legislation was discussed or considered in the State Senate.

The State Senate then proceeded to pass four bills. The first bill waives sales tax on gun locks and gun safes. This legislation also authorized the state to give away the over $1 million in gun locks the State currently has in storage. Second, the Senate passed legislation that required the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to submit a report to the governor on human trafficking. The TBI already collects data on human trafficking. This legislation merely required the TBI to submit a report based on the existing data. The third piece of Senate legislation required criminal court clerks to report convictions to the TBI in a more timely fashion. And finally, the State Senate appropriated millions more to mental health agencies.

At the end of the first week of the special session, the State Senate passed the above four pieces of legislation and adjourned. The House was left drifting in the wind, still debating all their legislation even though it was dead in the State Senate.

Reconvening for the second week of the special session, Democrat House member Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), the leader of the protests, was called out of order multiple times. The session closed with no further actions, but Pearson and his cadre will be back.

Finally, at no time during this eight-day special legislative session did anyone explain how any of the proposed legislation could have prevented the March assault in Nashville, or prevent any future attack. Thankfully, the special legislative session is over and “bad laws” were averted.

BOTTOM LINE: The First Civil Right is To Keep and Bear Arms. It is the “the palladium of the liberties of the republic,” as it is the ultimate assurance of all other rights.

FOOTNOTE: Regarding so-called “gun violence” and “mass shootings”: For the record, murders of multiple people, particularly mass murders, are very rare in our nation of 330 million people. There were approximately 25,000 homicides in the U.S. in the latest year of record, which you can view state by state, and fortunately there are indications that homicides may be declining after the surge in violence unleashed by Joe Biden and his Democrat agitators in 2020.

The Demos ubiquitously and falsely label the generational murderous contagion they have seeded, “gun violence,” and focus exclusively on the infrequent high-profile “mass shootings,” which account for only a tiny fraction of all homicides. More than 99% of murders in the U.S. are not the result of mass attacks. (Notably, guns don’t commit violence, thugs and sociopaths commit violence.) The oft-cited Gun Violence Archive defines a “mass shooting” as any incident that involves a “minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed.” The vast majority of those violent attacks are the result of drug and gang violence committed on Democrat-controlled urban centers.

In a country and culture that ignores the rising generation of sociopathic murderers – thugs in violent urban centers who are saturated with cultural violence to the point of glorifying it, it is fortunate that the incidence of mass murder is not ten times higher. Arguably, the only thing keeping that number from being higher is that 125 million Americans are legal and responsible gun owners.

Democrats don’t focus on the vast majority of murders, particularly the epidemic of black-on-black murders on their degraded urban poverty plantations because they want to avoid at all cost, the “inconvenient truth” about race and violence, which is the direct result of failed Democrat social programs. Those murders aren’t useful for the gun control narrative they invoke to evoke emotional reaction from mostly wealthy white suburban women, whom form the Demos’ largest voter constituency.

As for actual mass murders, that is detailed in the FBI’s data on “active shooter incidents” – which it defines as “one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area” – in 2022 the FBI reported 50 incidents resulting in 313 casualties (100 killed and 213 wounded). That number was up significantly from 2020, when the FBI reported 40 incidents resulting in 164 casualties (38 killed and 126 wounded). A more relevant record of “mass shooting” data is maintained by the Associated Press and Northeastern University, which uses the Department of Justice definition of mass public shooting: “A multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms.” These numbers fluctuate significantly year over year, and range between 20 and 40 incidents.

FOOTNOTE 2: Regarding why Democrats only focus on less than 1% of murders nationwide – they are intentionally using these rare high-profile tragedies to foment fear – most notably their oft-repeated but erroneous claim that “gun violence is the leading cause of death for children.” If by “children” they mean gang and drug associated murders of those primarily between the ages of 16 and 21, then yes. Democrats are experts at fomenting fear and division.

The fear and angst Demos are intentionally propagating is taking a toll on Americans’ mental health. Psychological researcher Dr. Riana Elyse Anderson observes: “Watching it time and time again on your phone or on the headlines can really impact you in ways that I don’t think we knew before to be as impactful. It’s so ‘in our face’ all the time and we have access to so much footage, so many pictures, so many videos, so many accounts that we’re ingesting it in ways that’s really unhealthy for us.” The result for many mothers is an irrational fear that their children will be shot. That is precisely the fear that Democrats want to perpetuate, especially among their female constituents, in order to advance their gun control agenda.

FOOTNOTE 3: Regarding those so-called “assault weapons,” for much the same reason Democrats focus only on the rare high-profile attacks to generate fear and angst, some of those attacks involve semi-automatic rifles versus pistols, thus the calls to ban them. However, rifles and shotguns of combined are used in less than 3% of all homicides, but Democrats never let facts get in the way of their political agenda.

FOOTNOTE 4: Regarding firearms and violent crime, researcher John Lott reports, “Over 92% of violent crimes in America do not involve firearms.” Again, the only thing keeping that number from being much higher is that 125 million Americans are legal and responsible gun owners.

FOOTNOTE 5: Regarding firearms and suicide, 54% of all deaths involving firearms are suicide, most also involving drugs or alcohol abuse, but the big numbers in “gun violence” reports often do not distinguish between murder and suicide. It would seem that the Demos’ support for assisted suicide is in conflict with their support for gun control.

FOOTNOTE 6: Regarding alcohol v firearm deaths, Demos should ban alcohol because alcohol abuse is far more deadly than firearm abuse. More than 140,000 people died from alcohol abuse last year – that’s SEVEN times the number homicides associate with fire arms. Drunk drivers are responsible for 28 deaths per day. And notably, it is estimated that alcohol is also a key factor in at least 30% of homicides involving a firearm. (Include illegal drug use and that number jumps to about 60%.)

If Democrats are serious about homicides, they should outlaw alcohol. Problem is, the vast majority of alcohol users possess and use it legally and responsibly. Likewise, the vast majority of firearm owners possess and use them legally and responsibly. Enacting a prohibition on firearms is tantamount to enacting a prohibition on alcohol. In both cases, only law-abiding users obey the laws, while lawless users don’t.