in May found strong bipartisan majorities of Tennesseans supporting stricter gun laws. Those included strengthening background checks and passing red-flag laws to prevent gun-related violence .
Alexander understands the political obstacles and the difficulty of changing minds. But she still senses that the state is at a tipping point on guns.March 27. Monday morning at Alexander’s house: Up, dress, eat, out the door. She ran toward the station at the foot of the hill. She saw teachers. The lunch lady. Pastors from her church. Their faces said it all: Something terrible had happened.
More than four hours later, at Woodmont Baptist Church, where the Covenant survivors had been brought by bus, the family reunited. Her husband, John, had finally been able to make it through all the police blockades. He was waiting by his truck when his wife and son emerged.From across the street, news photographers captured the moment.
It all felt so far from Tennessee, so disconnected from her comfortable life with a big job, a great husband and two happy kids, living in a city that has always felt to her like the safest place in the world. She believes strongly in the Second Amendment. When their son was born in 2013, they took advantage of a state program that allows parents to pay about $300 for a “Lifetime Sportsman License” for their child that exempts him from further Tennessee hunting or fishing license fees for life.
“Please pray for our Nashville community and for those waking up with empty arms today. Let this be the last time. Demand change.”Three weeks after the shooting, Alexander and her husband stood near the state capitol steps, part of a three-mile chain of thousands of people linked arm in arm to protest gun violence. The event was sponsored by Voices for a Safer Tennessee, a large, bipartisan group formed in response to the Covenant shooting.
Opponents of red-flag laws say they wouldn’t have prevented the Covenant deaths. Alexander said she believes those laws and better background checks may not stop all mass shootings, but they could stop some, which makes them worth doing. They visited the primary House hearing room. Several of them sat in the legislators’ big leather chairs. It helped to make the place seem less mystifying, less intimidating.