Sylvester Stalom
Protesters marched into the Tennesse state legislature in Nashville on Thursday to demand tougher gun regulations, three days after a shooting at a school in the city.
Hundreds of Americans, many of them children, had gathered in the morning outside the Capitol of this southern state, with signs “End gun violence”, “How much more?” or “When is it going to stop?”.
A party entered the building to challenge local elected officials, mostly Republicans, gathered in session. “What do we want? Gun regulations! When do we want it? Now!” they chanted in the hallways.
Some settled in silence in the balconies reserved for the public to follow the debates of the Senate. They were kicked out when one of them started shouting “kids are dead”, local media report.
In the hemicycle, a Democratic parliamentarian asked his colleagues to adopt “common sense” measures on firearms. “They’re out there, begging us to do something,” said Bob Freeman, according to comments reported by the daily The Tennessean.
On Monday, a former student broke into a small Christian school in Nashville with two assault rifles and a pistol. Audrey Hale, 28, killed three nine-year-old children and three employees before being shot dead by police.
The tragedy, whose motive remains unknown, has aroused great excitement and revived the debate on the circulation of firearms in the United States, where they represent the first cause of death for minors.
President Joe Biden called the violence “ripping the soul” of America and renewed his calls to ban assault rifles.
But the elected Republicans, closely linked to the NRA arms lobby, oppose any reform and pose as guarantors of the right to bear arms.
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