MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The deadly mass shooting in Minneapolis Wednesday may bring back memories of the deadly shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville. Like the school in Minneapolis, Covenant is a private Christian school. Six people, including three children, were killed at the school in 2023. Investigators say the shooter was a former student who shot through a door to get inside.
The mass shooting sparked protests and a push for stricter gun laws in Tennessee. State lawmakers have since approved several school safety bills, but not any gun control measures. State Representative G.A. Hardaway co-sponsored bills tackling school safety this past session, but he admits more needs to be done.
“The joy and promise of another school year is no longer there,” said Rep. Hardaway. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting to the cause of the problem. And that means addressing our mental health issues. Nothing stops that bullet if you don’t see it coming. So we need to look at how did we get here? And I would dare say that you can have not just a correlation, but a causation drawn between our relaxing of the gun laws and trying to get closer and closer to constitutional carry.”…