Updatet on recent events in Tennessee (where last school shooting occurred)
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Anonymous
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Since the school shooting, the gun control demonstrations at the state capitol, and the ousting of the two Justins of the Tennessee Three, the following have happened in TN: *Justin Jones has been reinstated to the legislature *The Shelby Co. Commission will be voting later today to reinstate Justin Pearson *Speaker Cameron Sexton has come under public scrutiny after it was discovered he doesn't live in the district he represents ("Under the Tennessee Constitution, Sexton can only represent District 25 if he is "a qualified voter of that district.") and has not paid property taxes for the past two years on a condo he owns in his district. https://popular.info/p/update-tennessee-speaker-admits-his *The Tennessee Three apparently now have an organization and website of that name--tennesseethree.org--with information on upcoming peaceful demonstrations. *Republican governor Bill Lee "signed an executive order Tuesday to tighten the background check process in the state, citing recent "recent tragedies." The executive order requires responsible parties to ensure that all criminal history and court mental health information is entered into the Tennessee Instant Check System or provided to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation within 72 hours. The executive order also directs those entities to determine how the process for submitting such information can be improved, and report to the governor's office and state legislature within 60 days." Gov. Lee also "urged the state’s legislature to pass additional gun control measures: “I’m asking the General Assembly to bring forward an order of protection law. A new strong order of protection law will provide the broader population cover, safety, from those who are a danger to themselves or the population,” Lee said at a news conference, adding that he would like legislators to pass the legislation within the current legislative session, which ends in a few weeks." The WP Editorial Board just wrote a piece on him, concluding that: "Mr. Lee, a Republican governor in a red state, deserves credit for going as far as he did. His ideas may not represent the gold standard. But under the circumstances, bronze is better than nothing." For those who have WP access: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/12/bill-lee-guns-tennessee-shooting/ This feels like momentum toward addressing the proliferation of guns in our society--hope it lasts but am not holding my breath. |
Anonymous
| We were in TN last week visiting family and, I admit, I've seen these developments and am pretty shocked. In a good way. |
Anonymous
| This is great news. I just wish it didn't only happen because it was a queer shooter at a church school. I feel like when it's just a regular old right wing Q type person shooting up a regular school, it's all thoughts and prayers. A trans man does it and they make a bit of a push. I'm glad it's being done none-the-less. |
Anonymous
| How much of that would have happened if the Tennessee Three hadn't protested and two of them unfairly ousted? Protesting works. I hope they don't let the momentum die after achieving small goals. I also hope the speaker is ousted in shame if he's really not living in that district, and he has some legal penalties for not paying taxes. |
Anonymous
| This is a good start OP. |
Anonymous
Actually, the more I think of it, the more angry I'm feeling. All that's happened here is some racism was exposed, some not so secret cheating by the republican speaker has been exposed, and we found out the freaky TN congresspeople pee on other people's stuff in anger like bad puppies. We haven't gotten a more liberal state house, we've just gotten the same people back in (which is better than having them kicked out, but we've gained no ground). The executive order doesn't sound like it's really expansive, it's just saying mental health issues have to be reported within 3 days. That's great, but it's probably not terribly different from the original goal. And sure, it's easy for the governor to say his team should pass some sensible gun control laws, but we all know that's not going to happen in a meaningful way. It's all for show, and we're acting like we've made progress while they get congratulated for coming around on gun control. It's like when people cheered conservatives for being open minded when they said they supported some sort of civil union instead of gay marriage, because it was better than nothing. I'm tired of slightly more than nothing. |
Anonymous
The Democratic Party in Tennessee pulled in more money in the last five days than they did in the last five years. That will help in the next state legislative elections. Dozens of districts aren’t even contested. |
Anonymous
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civil union vs marriage would be totally fine...if we hadn't gone and thrown "marriage" into legal documents and such.
We had to go and complicate it. |
Anonymous
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Justin Pearson has been reinstated!
https://apnews.com/article/35fd0a2e366e98fa170c4f7348246d03 |
Anonymous
Why is it complicated? If two people want to dedicate their lives to each other, it is a marriage. If you don't like two people of the same sex getting married, that is a you problem, not a them problem. |
Anonymous
Separate isn’t equal. I thought we covered that already but perhaps not. |
Anonymous
Sometimes it is. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
| It's a good start but much more is needed. |
Anonymous