Tennessee representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson will reportedly meet with President Joe Biden on Monday.
In late March, Aiden Hale opened fire on students and staff members at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. By doing so, Hale killed three students and three staff members. As the greater Nashville community mourned, Jones, Pearson and Johnson urged their colleagues to push for stricter gun laws throughout the state. Their calls for stricter gun laws led to a protest at the State Capitol that led to Pearson and Jones being expelled from their roles in state government. Ultimately, the two lawmakers were reinstalled, but their expulsion drew the attention of millions of Americans around the nation, including those in the White House.
“Earlier this month, the president spoke to them by phone after they were subjugated to expulsion votes in the Tennessee Statehouse for peacefully protesting in support of stronger gun safety laws following the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville. During that call, the president thanked them for their leadership in seeking to ban assault weapons and standing up for democratic values,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.
“And the three lawmakers thanked the president for his leadership on gun safety and for spotlighting the undemocratic and unprecedented attacks on them in a Tennessee Statehouse.”
