Tennesseans from across the political spectrum unite to address gun violence

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• William Brangham:

  One year ago today, three little children and three adults were shot dead at the Covenant School in Nashville. It was the deadliest school shooting in Tennessee history.

  In the wake of that tragedy, a group of Tennesseans from across the political spectrum came together to find ways to reduce the harm of gun violence in their state.

  Judy Woodruff reports from Tennessee as part of her ongoing series America at a Crossroads.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Tim Carroll is a firearms instructor in rural Harriman, Tennessee, who is passionate about guns and gun rights.

• Tim Carroll, Firearms Instructor:

  I'm a Second Amendment absolutist. Having more guns out there is a good thing. There are some folks in society who cannot protect themselves physically. The firearm is the only way that that person can protect themselves.

• Judy Woodruff:

  When you think about a gun, what do you think?

• Alyssa Pearman, High School Teacher:

  I think it is a tool that is misused often and, in the wrong hands, can cause a lot of damage.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Alyssa Pearman is a high school English teacher in Jackson, Tennessee, who lost two of her students to gun violence less than a year apart.

  How are their families doing?

• Alyssa Pearman:

  That was, like, the hardest part. It's just — it makes me cry every time. But…

• Judy Woodruff:

  Yes.

• Alyssa Pearman:

  … when the casket closed, like, you hear their mom just scream.

• Judy Woodruff:

  I can't even imagine.

  You might think these two would struggle to see eye to eye about anything to do with guns. But Tim and Alyssa were part of a so-called citizen solutions session that gathered 11 Tennesseans from all walks of life for a three-day conference.

  The goal of the session, held in the wake of a 2023 mass shooting at an elementary school, was to develop realistic proposals that could curb gun violence.

• Alyssa Pearman:

  If we went to high school together, we'd argue a lot. It was really refreshing to be able to share my story and for people not to brush it off.

• Tim Carroll:

  I was really fortunate to be able to get that sort of perspective from folks like Alyssa, because, when I hear gunshots, it's somebody who's hunting or they're just out here shooting. And when they hear gunshots, it's, something bad is happening.

• Judy Woodruff:

  The event was organized by the national nonpartisan nonprofit named Starts With Us, which aims to bring people from diverse backgrounds together to find solutions to the country's toughest issues.

• Tim Carroll:

  We're being fed a narrative that everybody hates everybody else. When we sit down like we are today, we know that's not the case.

• Judy Woodruff:

  The Tennessee 11, as they call themselves, shared personal experiences and expertise, and ultimately came together last August to draft five proposals that they felt could help address gun violence.

• Emergency dispatcher:

  Nine-one-one. What is the address of your emergency?

• MAN:

  I — all I saw was a man holding an assault rifle shooting through the doors.

• Judy Woodruff:

  What prompted their effort was the incident one year ago when a shooter killed three 9-year-old children and three adults at the private Christian Covenant School in Nashville, just one of 82 school shootings in the U.S. in 2023.

• Protester:

  When I say gun reform, you say now!

  Gun reform!

• Protesters:

  Now!

• Protester:

  Gun reform!

• Protesters:

  Now!

• Judy Woodruff:

  Following the tragedy, students, parents and gun safety activists called on the Tennessee state legislature to act to prevent more gun violence.

• State Rep. Justin Jones (D-TN):

  They can't stop the thousands of us here who are demanding change. No action!

• ProtesterS:

  No peace!

• Judy Woodruff:

  Eventually leading to the controversial expulsion of two Black lawmakers from the Statehouse.

• Protester:

  I am a pleading mother. I don't want anyone of you to feel what this feels like.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Then, in August of last year, Tennessee's Republican Governor Bill Lee called a special session to enact gun safety measures, but no proposal passed.

  That same week, the Tennessee 11 convened to try to hammer out some solutions of their own. Four of their proposals centered on measures that would not restrict access to firearms, things like promoting responsible gun ownership, broadening the role of police officers in schools, working to reduce trauma from gun violence, and increasing understanding of gun issues in schools, communities, and the media.

  The one measure they agreed on that focused on restricting gun access became the most controversial, allowing the temporary removal of firearms from individuals based on the risk that they may commit a violent act.

• Arriell Gipson Martin, District Manager, Shelby County, Tennessee:

  You walk in a room, and you're hesitant at first. You see people you have never seen before. You know nothing about them, and your wall's up, right?

• Judy Woodruff:

  Arriell Gipson Martin, who took part in the solutions session, is a district manager in Memphis area local government who works in violence prevention. She says she learned a new way to connect with those she doesn't agree with.

• Arriell Gipson Martin:

  You break bread together, right? You have meals together. You ask, hey, I heard you say that one thing in that room. Can you tell me more about that experience? Maybe we can meet in the middle.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And now it's several months later. Do you still feel good, comfortable with what you all agreed on?

• Arriell Gipson Martin:

  Absolutely. Absolutely.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Public polling done by Starts With Us, the same nonprofit that organized the sessions, suggested that those five proposals had majority support among Tennesseans statewide, some narrowly.

  The plan was to then take these hard-won compromises to the state capitol to present lawmakers in this Republican-dominated state with a way forward.

• Adam Luke, Family Therapist:

  We are depending on you to choose the path that enables collaboration across lines of difference for the good of all Tennesseans.

• Judy Woodruff:

  The group invited over 100 Tennessee legislators to attend their session, but only 10 showed up.

• Adam Luke:

  Crickets, you know?

• Judy Woodruff:

  Adam Luke is a family therapist and gun enthusiast who was part of the Tennessee 11.

• Adam Luke:

  My House representative from my district shows up and then doesn't even want to have a conversation with me afterwards. I had to chase him down the hall.

• Judy Woodruff:

  You chased him down the hall?

• Adam Luke:

  Yes, because, as soon as I ended, he left the chambers quite quickly and didn't want to take, like, our information packet, anything like that.

  And I do believe that this is when we start talking about the extremes, because is it really his unwillingness to have a conversation with me, or does he think it's political suicide to have a conversation with me?

• Judy Woodruff:

  The "NewsHour" reached out to a dozen Republican state lawmakers representing the home districts of the Tennessee 11, but none agreed to talk with us about these issues.

  And when Adam Luke, the gun rights advocate, reached out to local gun organizations to share his excitement about the exchange of ideas that was happening, he encountered not just opposition, but threats.

• Adam Luke:

  I was met with serious hostility. I was hit with people calling my work phone and leaving unsettling voice-mails.

• Judy Woodruff:

  What did they say?

• Adam Luke:

  Well, I mean, to put it plainly, that I was a liberal plant, that who the hell are you, who elected you to speak for me?

• Judy Woodruff:

  In fact, a conservative newspaper, The Tennessee Star, picked up the story criticizing the effort for being funded by an out-of-state billionaire. The article claimed that the whole effort was designed to push a gun control agenda, and that some among the Tennessee 11 were partisan activists.

• Tim Carroll:

  I know that, if I start speaking out about this session and what I did, then I know that all of this could go away, right? If somebody says Tim Carroll is working with the anti-gun folks to try to come up with new laws, that's all they will hear. And they will say, you know what, Tim Carroll, don't go take classes with him, don't listen to anything he says.

  I think that's why I fought so hard during the solutions sessions to come up with things that didn't infringe on our rights. But I know that will be misconstrued in the gun rights community.

• John Harris, Executive Director, Tennessee Firearms Association:

  I can't explain why he would have that fear. I mean, if he in fact is a strong Second Amendment advocate, the question becomes when you cross over from having the conversation to supporting a concept that may not reconcile with the Second Amendment.

• Judy Woodruff:

  John Harris is a lawyer and executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association. He says both the Second Amendment and the U.S. Supreme Court have been clear that there is little to no legal room to regulate firearms.

  You have a motto or a line that is your…

• John Harris:

  Tennessee'S only no-compromise gun rights organization.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Is that your position, no compromise?

• John Harris:

  Once it becomes clear that something is a constitutionally protected right — and the Supreme Court clearly defines the boundaries — why compromise?

• Tim Carroll:

  My goal of joining the citizen solutions session was to make sure my voice was heard, that my community, the gun community, that their voice was heard. So I think there's a lot of us that are out there, but we're just quiet because we know that, if we speak up, we will be ostracized from our side.

  And even though we're a pro-gun and showed up to this, the anti-gun community, they're not going to want to have anything to do with us either.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Now, as the state marks one year since the Covenant shooting, with no new measures in place to reduce gun violence, some in the Tennessee 11 say it's time for listening and compromise.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Judy Woodruff in Harriman, Tennessee.