TN Lawmakers Who Joined Gun Control Protesters Get Stripped of Committee Assignments

Three Tennessee State Reps. were stripped of committee assignments — and may be expelled from the legislative body — after joining the gun control protests which targeted the Tennessee Capitol after a 28-year-old transgender shot and killed six people at a Nashville Christian school.

Breitbart News noted the protests at the Tennessee Capitol began as ones filled with simple chants like, “Gun Control Now,” then gave way to protesters storming Tennessee’s legislative chambers:

WPLN reported that Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) compared the protests to what was seen on January 6 in DC.

State Reps. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), and Justin Jones (D-Nashville), joined with protesters by chanting for gun control when the multitude was in chambers. Johnson, Pearson, and Jones, were subsequently stripped of their committee assignments and a vote will be held later this week to decide if they will be expelled from the legislative body altogether.

Speaker Sexton specifically focused on Jones and Johnson, saying, “Two of the members; Representative Jones and Representative Johnson, have been very vocal about Jan. 6 and Washington, D.C., about what that was. What they did today was equivalent, at least equivalent, maybe worse depending on how you look at it, to doing an insurrection in the State Capitol.”

On April 3, 2023, Sexton used a tweet to elaborate: “Their actions are and will always be unacceptable, and they break several rules of decorum and procedure on the House floor. Their actions and beliefs that they could be arrested on the House floor were an effort, unfortunately, to make themselves the victims.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.