US: Tennessee House expels two Black Democrats for gun violence protests, spares White lawmaker

US gun violence has stoked widespread protests across the United States in recent days, after as many as 9,800 people reportedlydied due to gun violence in just the first three months of 2023, a figure that also includes self-inflicted deaths by suicide apart from regular acts of mass gun violence. Last week, three Democratic Party politicians led a gun control protest at the Tennessee Capitol, calling for tighter gun controls after the Nashville school shooting on March 27.

Both Democrat lawmakers, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled from Tennessee statehouse on Thursday (April 6). The Republican-controlled house said that the trio had brought "disorder and dishonour to the House".

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 72-25 to expel Justin Jones and 69-26 to remove Justin Pearson. However, the vote against a third Democratic lawmaker, Gloria Johnson, a white person, who also joined the protest with Jones and Pearson, fell short by one vote.

"A state in which the Ku Klux Klan was founded is now attempting another power grab by silencing the two youngest Black representatives," Justin Jones said after the votes, referring to the 19th century white supremacist group which targeted Black Americans, Jews, Native Americans and homosexuals with an explicit racist overdrive.

ALSO WATCH |2 Democrats expelled from Tennessee house for protesting against gun laws

Jones told BBC News that an "extreme Republican supermajority, almost completely a white caucus" had expelled the "two youngest black lawmakers because we stood demanding action on gun violence".

The March 27 attack at a Nashville School killed six people, including three nine-year-old children.

The three Democrat lawmakers, dubbed "Tennessee Three", took to the Tennessee House floor, chanting "no action, no peace" during a protest on March 30. The protest saw hundreds of pro-gun control demonstrators coming in front of the statehouse, demanding strict gun controls.

Jones, 27, and Pearson, 28, the two youngest members of the legislature, used a megaphone and banged the House lectern as they made rousing speeches and addressed the protesters who crowded around the chamber's public viewing platform.

"We don't want to be up here, but we have no choice but to find a way... to disrupt business as normal, because business as normal is our children dying," Pearson said.

All three also chanted "enough is enough" and "power to the people".

US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, slammed the expulsions as "shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent".

In Tennessee, the House of Representatives has only twice voted to expel members, first in 1980 when a lawmaker convicted of soliciting a bribe was removed and then in 2016, when a lawmaker facing accusations of sexual misconduct was removed.

People in the United States own more guns than anywhere else in the world. According to a 2018 report by Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, US gun owners own 393.3 million weapons, translating into120.5 firearms per 100 residents.

(With inputs from agencies)


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