There is No Bipartisan Solution to Gun Violence

Tennessee Republicans respond to the Covenant School shooting by supporting more guns in schools

There’s a scene in the new musical Suffs (not a spoiler because it’s literally history) where the suffragists sit in the balcony of the Tennessee General Assembly and watch the men decide whether TN will be the final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment. The bill passes by a single vote from a 24-year-old representative. As I watched the show last night it was a stark parallel to a recent scene in Tennessee; that one vote changed so much and gave us the power I’m now asking you to use.

Photo from Ray Dipietro

One of the incredible things about doing advocacy work on Instagram the last couple years has been meeting so many people who are new to gun violence prevention (GVP) work. I’ve been steeped in this world for nearly 20 years, including my time as a staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee drafting and negotiating gun legislation. In the Senate, my job was to get good legislation passed - which meant I had no choice but to push for bipartisan stuff. And boy did we try. 

In recent years, the crescendo of gun violence in red-state schools and malls resulted in the passage of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). The culmination of decades of work, it included all of the compromises that we could negotiate between the current Republican party and people who want gun reform. And it did include stuff - GOOD stuff! 

Specifically, the bipartisan guns bill that Biden signed into law included: 

1. Established grants to states to implement red flag laws

2. Prohibits abusive dating partners from possessing firearms for 5 years 

3. Requires enhanced background checks for people under the age of 21 to buy rifles

4. Provides $250 million for community violence intervention programs 

5. Creates new laws and penalties for federal firearms trafficking and straw purchasing offenses

6. Expanded the group of people who need to get a license and do background checks to sell guns. (The Biden Administration today announced they have built on this law to close the gun show and online sales loopholes.)

That being said, it wasn’t enough. There is a LOT more we need to do to actually address this problem (e.g. codify universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, reform gun manufacturer immunity and much more). And here’s the thing: no amount of cajoling will convince the elected officials who make up the current Republican party to support meaningful gun reform. And I say that not to yuck someone’s yum or get viral views of cancel culture - but because I want to push people to engage in effective advocacy to *actually get shit done.* Because there is a mechanism to change this and it’s right at our fingertips.

Federally, a few things have changed since the passage of the BSCA: (1) Republicans who supported it got spanked by their local Republicans, including some losing their seats (the Congressman who represents Uvalde is getting primaried from the right on guns by Brandon Herrera, pictured below). (2) The Republican leader on the bill, Senator John Cornyn, has expressly stated that they will not be doing anything more (“I would say we’ve gone about as far as we can go”). (3) The House of Representatives is controlled by Republicans who will absolutely NOT pass anything or even put anything up for a vote related to gun reform (when the bill passed in 2022 the House was controlled by Democrats).

If you are someone who has been focused on a bipartisan solution to guns - I’m calling you in not calling you out. JOIN ME in fixing this situation with the most effective pressure mechanism we have: votes. 

1. Proof is in the pudding: What happened in Tennessee

As you know, a little over one year ago on March 27, 2023 there was a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, TN. Three children (all age nine) and three adults were murdered. A horrifying act of violence that galvanized the state and engaged many previously non-political parents to get involved.  

The Tennessee legislature is overwhelmingly Republican, so advocates pushed to make them understand the gravity of the risk posed by gun violence to the children of Tennessee. They pushed and prodded for meaningful reform. (A logical legislative strategy!! Also what I would have suggested they do if I had been retained to advise them!)

Here’s the result of that work:

• April 2023: The legislature expelled two Black lawmakers, Rep. Justin Jones & Rep. Justin Pearson, for protesting on the state house floor demanding action on gun violence prevention bills. A third representative who is white, Rep. Gloria Johnson, was spared from expulsion by a single vote. Both Reps. Jones and Pearson were reinstated in the legislature after winning their special elections later in the summer.  

• April 2023: The Tennessee legislature adjourned without passing legislation relating to guns. Well, I take that back, they did pass a bill that gives civil immunity to the gun industry. 

• August 2023: Governor Bill Lee (R) reconvenes the legislature for a special session to address gun violence. The session adjourns without any new gun laws and only a handful of modest changes to the public safety systems in the state. 

• Tuesday, April 9, 2024: The Tennessee State Senate approved a bill on a party-line vote that will allow public school K-12 teachers and employees to carry concealed firearms. The bill would also prevent disclosing which employees are carrying guns to anyone except for the school administration and law enforcement. So this means that Kindergarten teachers in Tennessee would be able to carry concealed firearms in the classroom and the parents of those children - and even other teachers in the school - would not know who was carrying a firearm. 

Parents of children who attend The Convent School and other advocates were in the Senate gallery and protested the vote. The Tennessee Lieutenant Governor had State Troopers clear the protestors from the gallery, threatening them with arrest. (Leaving behind only the few who stayed silent).

Here’s what some parents had to say about Tuesday’s State Senate vote:

• Covenant mom Melissa Alexander: "That’s a pretty difficult thing as a parent, not to know who your child is going to be around that's going to have a gun."

• Covenant mom Beth Gebhard: “If what had happened on March 27 had gone down the way that it did with a teacher armed with a handgun attempting to put the perpetrator out, my children would likely be dead." 

• Democratic State Senator London Lamar, who was holding her 8 month old son when she gave this quote: "I am offended by many of my colleagues on the floor. This is one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation to come out of this assembly. [Teachers] took an oath to give our kids writing and arithmetic, and we are now making them as law enforcement."

As if that weren't enough, Senate Republicans also advanced an amendment to the Tennessee Constitution's "right to keep, bear, and wear arms" that would broaden the right beyond defense and delete a section giving lawmakers the ability "to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime." If approved, that wouldn't be on the ballot until 2026. And it’s not just the State Senate that’s getting in on the dangerous action, Tennessee House Republicans have passed a bill out of committee this year that would expand the state's permitless carry law to include rifles. 

The Tennessee Senate Dems just posted on Instagram that Republicans also just voted to ban local red flag laws in Tennessee, which would prevent law enforcement from removing guns from someone deemed by a court to be a threat to themselves or others.

2. But why don’t we just try?!

We live in a world where there is so much noise and information getting thrown our way every three seconds, and especially for people who are new to this work, I totally understand how you could think people just haven’t tried hard enough. The Sandy Hook Elementary School parents have been advocating for nearly 12 years - I can promise you they haven’t done nothing. 

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of some of the votes we’ve seen at the federal level since the Sandy Hook shooting: 

• April 2013: Manchin-Toomey bipartisan gun safety proposal: Failed in the Senate 54-46

• April 2013: Assault Weapons Ban: Failed in the Senate 40-60

• December 2015: Manchin-Toomey: Failed in the Senate 48-50 (I staffed this vote - was brutal)

• June 2016: Universal Background Checks: Failed in the Senate 44-56

• February 2019: Universal Background Checks: Passed the House 240-190 !!! This was the first major policy to pass the House after Democrats won back control and Pelosi was speaker once again. Then it died in the Senate. 

• April 2019: Violence Against Women Act which prevented stalkers and dating partners from having guns: Passed the House 263-158. Died in the Senate.

• March 2021: Universal Background Checks: Passed the House 227 - 201. Died in the Senate.

• June 2022: Protect Our Kids Act: Passed the House 223-204. Died in the Senate. This package after the Uvalde shooting included provisions to raise the age to purchase rifles, banned high-capacity magazines, and included safe storage and red flag provisions, among others. 

• June 2022: Bipartisan Safer Communities Act: Passed the Senate 65-33. Passed the House 234-193. Signed into law by President Biden.

• July 2022: Assault Weapons Ban: Passed the House 223-204. Died in the Senate.

3. Republican cultural identity is inextricably linked to guns

An easy talking point to signify the power of the gun lobby has been to talk about the amount the NRA donates to buy politicians. But today the NRA is in shambles, its leader saddled with millions of court fines for fiscal misconduct and the organization has limited power in a movement that has moved passsed it. It’s much bigger than just the NRA.

Pro-gun groups have outspent gun violence prevention groups when it comes to politics. From 2005 - 2012 we didn’t spend over $300k while they were spending mid-seven figures. That changed during the 2018 midterms where, for the first time ever, the GVP groups outspent the NRA. But in recent years we’ve seen the rise of non-NRA gun rights organizations who are willing and able to partially fill the vacuum left by the NRA, and in 2021 we spent nearly $3 million and the gun rights and gun manufacturers spent over $18 million. 

But of course nothing is that simple and the stranglehold that self-described 2A advocates (2nd Amendment) have over the Republican Party is also because guns have become part of the cultural identity of the voters, especially the partisan primary voters that chose who the elected officials are in one-party districts. 

→ Cultural Identity: if you’ve spent any time on conservative social media you’ve likely witnessed the toxic intersection of guns and the theater of masculinity coming from the right. In their definition of manhood, being able to protect one’s family is the core of a man’s purpose.  These weapons serve as a physical (and frankly weirdly phallic) representation of the function and place for men in a society they feel is leaving them behind. (The grievance-based nature of right wing men’s politics is a whole other conversation). Researchers in a 2017 study found that “engaging in fantasies about being an NRA ‘good guy’ who uses his gun to protect his family and community from the ‘bad guys’ was one way for men to reclaim that threatened masculinity.” 

Gun-ownership has moved far beyond hunting. In the world of conspiracy-addled MAGA, there’s a need to be ready to defend oneself against the liberal deep state that is coming for you. (To vax your children, force GMO tomatoes on you, make you befriend a trans person (?)…that part has always been a bit opaque for me). And of course, most importantly, to protect you from your fears rooted in racism and xenophobia - of people coming across the border and BLM rallies, which are, in the minds of conservative content consumers, streaming into small towns across the country any minute. 

Republicans focus on culture war issues because it works. Guns have become another moral crusade, a talisman of their political tribe that can be used to rile up a base that is not receiving economic benefit from the ruling class they are supporting. 

And I say all that to emphasize that this isn’t something that a few wide white lady smiles can undo. There is a massive system of powerful organizations and messaging outlets who have spent decades crafting this effective political strategy, one that politically rests on an extremist position on the issue. And one that has been inextricably woven into not only people’s lives, but their very identities.

But we don’t have to ask their permission to change the system. We can in fact just put new-decision makers in their place.

4. So what is the plan ma’am?

It’s pretty simple: Only vote for people who commit to passing gun reform, and work to replace the people who won’t. This is a concept I’m calling becoming a Threshold Voter.

Conservatives spent 50 years working to overturn Roe v. Wade with a multi-pronged strategy; including politics with policy advocacy is plain good strategy. There’s a reason that all major GVP advocacy organizations have endorsed Joe Biden - and it’s not a conspiracy. It’s because he will advance the cause and Trump won’t. 1+1 = 2.

Building a massive coalition of threshold voters is the key grassroots strategy. I’m drawing a distinction here between one-issue voters and this idea of a “threshold voter.” (Which is a term I made up.) A threshold voter is just that, someone who doesn’t necessarily make their entire vote depending on one issue, but rather has a very specific threshold you have to meet. And if you don’t you don’t get their vote, end of story.  

This grassroots strategy isn’t the *only* thing that should be or is happening. Some other things that are ongoing:

1. Litigation: Lawyers at advocacy groups are pursuing an impact litigation strategy, but we need stronger legal structures to fix some of the terrible Supreme Court jurisprudence coming from the conservative justices. 

2. State Advancement: States are pushing to pass innovative laws and allocate funding to violence intervention programs that are designed to break the cycle of violence.  

3. Federal Executive Action: So we know Congress won’t act, but the Biden Administration can. They’ve already done a bunch of stuff including establishing the first-of-its-kind Office of Gun Violence Prevention (after incredible advocacy from the EYP community!) to ensure that the entire Administration is focused on reducing gun violence. To list just a few of the Biden Administration’s actions on gun safety: 

   • Nominated the first Senate-confirmed ATF Director in 7 years

   • Updated federal regulation around who is able to sell firearms, to get as close to universal background checks without additional legislation (because Congress, duh)

   • Cracked down on ghost guns which are privately made, unserialized guns increasingly used in crime

   • Increased regulation of stabilizing braces which the gun industry has developed as “accessories” to turn pistols into short-barreled rifles

   • Studied and released comprehensive data regarding firearms trafficking (the third report just came out a few days ago!)

   • Got serious about enforcing laws against rogue gun dealers

   • Launched the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center to help states implement these laws, also known as red flag laws

4. The Courts: Something conservatives have been especially adept at is stacking the courts with judges who will implement conservative ideology into legal practice (see: Dobbs, Mifepristone, etc. etc.) But what you may not know is that President Biden has had 175 judges confirmed since he took office. This is about the same as Trump at this point in his term, but more than Obama. It’s also a big focus of the next four years (and four decades!) as more judicial vacancies open up.

5. So what do you do?

1. Put up a social media post that says: I’ll only vote for politicians who support common sense gun reform. Ask your friends to do it too.

2. Make sure you know who your elected officials are and what their stance is on guns. If they don't support reform, make sure there’s someone running against them (i.e. pressure your local Democratic party to do their job!)

3. Start talking to people you know about this very topic - this is called relational organizing and something I’m hoping to do bigger things with in coming months (ya girl is trying!). Interpersonal conversations between people who have a pre-existing relationship is the most effective form of canvassing. And it’s the single most effective thing you can do this cycle.