DALLAS — Lawmakers from Tennessee, at the center of a gun debate in their own state, will meet with President Joe Biden on Monday armed with new political ammunition they hope leads to changes in gun laws in their state and the entire country.
Tennessee state representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson, known as the "Tennessee Three" after they faced expulsion from the Tennessee House of Representatives for protesting gun violence earlier this month, will head to the White House on Monday.
The president has said he believes he has done all he can at the executive branch level to address gun violence and is calling on Congress to debate and enact changes. The Tennessee lawmakers will ask the president, instead, to declare gun violence a national health emergency.
"I think we need emergency response when we're facing a crisis situation and that in a state like ours we need help from our national leaders," Jones said in an interview with CNN.
A former student killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School in Nashville on March 27. But, the lawmakers plan to discuss more than just the tragedy in their own state.
On Saturday night, nine teenagers were injured in a shooting at an after-prom party in Jasper, Texas.
The previous weekend, 20-year-old Ja'Den Blake Mobil was shot and killed at an after-prom event in Johnson County. The 19-year-old suspect was eventually arrested in Houston after a police chase.
Kaylin Gillis, 20, was shot and killed in upstate New York last week when she and a friend turned into the wrong driveway. A suspect is in custody.
On April 13, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot and wounded when he mistakenly rang the wrong doorbell in Kansas City, Missouri. That suspect is in custody.
And a shooting suspect is also in custody in the wounding of two high school cheerleaders in Elgin near Austin. The girls reportedly tried to get into the wrong car after practice and the driver allegedly got out of the vehicle and responded with gunfire.
"I think there's really a holistic approach that has to be taken that isn't just addressing guns but addressing how to prevent gun violence and how we support communities that are suffering," added Pearson. "It is also to think about beyond executive order what other authorities exist within departments and agencies that the president is ultimately responsible for."
But at the same time, the number of both state and national instant criminal background checks, required before gun purchases and an indicator of how many people are either purchasing weapons, surged during the pandemic from under 30 million to nearly 40 million, according to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.