Self-described as the “world’s leading liberal voice,” U.K. news outlet The Guardian published an attack-style article denouncing the Republican supermajority in Tennessee politics on Friday, claiming such a political makeup has “imprisoned our democracy.”
The piece justified the accusation by citing state lawmakers’ response to last year’s shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, among other legislative actions.
The article states:
The murder of six people at a church school in an affluent, largely white enclave of Tennessee’s largest city one year ago sparked a mass protest movement for gun control by Nashville parents. The Republican-dominated legislature met that movement with some spending on school police officers as a gesture to the outrage, a law shielding gun and ammunition manufacturers from liability as a gesture to Tennessee’s powerful gun lobby and the expulsion of the two Black lawmakers as a gesture of warning to people causing too much trouble.
The report failed to elaborate on the school killer, 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale who identified as transgender, and how it has since been revealed that there was a “massive failure of the mental health system” in the case in regards to Hale being under doctor’s care for an emotional disorder at the time of the shooting – specifically concerning an alleged failure to report of a threat made by the shooter before carrying out the heinous act.
Hale, who allegedly visited the school multiple times before shooting and killing three adults and three students on March 27, left behind a manifesto of which three pages have since been leaked. Those three pages are filled with hateful and violent rhetoric, specifically towards white children.
The piece also failed to mention the ongoing legal battle for the shooter’s manifesto to be released to the public, as such available information would not only reveal the shooter’s intent for carrying out the act but also would better assist lawmakers in legislating solutions for such crimes.
In addition, the piece briefly acknowledged state lawmakers work during the special legislative session called last year in response to the school shooting but deceptively implied that an overwhelming percentage of Tennesseans advocated for gun control laws to be passed.
The article states:
The special session ended with laws to speed up background checks and to provide free gun locks. Lawmakers also appropriated $100m in one-time spending for community mental health agencies and other mental health services, and to provide more school resource officers. But “red flag” laws and other gun safety measures were off the table, despite polling, protests and prudence.
Multiple polls conducted around the time of the special session consistently showed Tennesseans against the passage of red flag laws and instead wanted solutions concerning the criminals who commit such crimes.
For example, a poll published by co/efficient in June specifically showed that most Tennesseans would prefer that dangerous people be removed from society rather than removing guns from the hands of potentially dangerous people via red flag laws.
In regards to the piece citing protests in favor of the passage of red flag laws, leftist-organized protests with the intent of disrupting the special session were held while at the same time out-of-state gun control activists were phone banking to residents in Tennessee to advocate for the passage of such laws.
It should be noted that Friday’s article was filed as a news story opposed to an opinion piece.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “The Guardian U.K. Headquarters” by The Guardian U.K.
