Another school shooting, another call for assault rifle bans
Rep. Justin J. Pearson of Memphis, Tennessee, speaks to a group of college Democrats at Western Carolina University. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Remarks given by Tennessee State Rep. Justin J. Pearson, stumping for the Democratic presidential ticket during a visit to Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, took on a more poignant air due to a tragic coincidence and a surprise guest — suggesting Americans remain especially divided on a controversial issue.
“We have to ban assault weapons. No one should have a weapon of war. We have to have red flag laws,” Pearson told The Smoky Mountain News. “We have to do everything that we can in our power to end the gun violence epidemic.”
Pearson, of Memphis, was first elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in a January 2023 special election to fill the seat of another Democrat who passed away shortly before being reelected the previous fall.
Three months after Pearson’s election, he and fellow Democratic Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville were expelled from the Tennessee House for violating decorum rules by participating in a demonstration for gun reform at the capitol during the legislative session. A third Democratic legislator, Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, survived the expulsion proceedings by just one vote, however both Pearson and Jones were quickly reappointed to their seats. Together, Pearson, Johnson and Jones are still referred to as “the Tennessee Three.”
The Tennessee Three’s participation in the demonstration came in the immediate aftermath of a shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, when a 28-year-old former student undergoing treatment for an emotional disorder purchased seven firearms legally and used some of them to kill three nine year olds and three adults.
Vice President Kamala Harris met with the Three during their brief exile.
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“There were a couple things she told us. She said the courage and the momentum that we built for this movement has to continue, and she charged us with helping to make sure that young people realize that they have a voice and power in this fight,” Pearson recalls. “The second thing was that she shared her concern for our democracy because of the authoritarian actions of the General Assembly, and her worry about people misusing and abusing their power to silence the voices of people, especially the two youngest, democratically-elected black lawmakers.”
When Pearson arrived at WCU on the afternoon of Sept. 4, he didn’t launch right into a campaign speech. He started instead with a prayer, because as he was making his way to campus from Charlotte — part of a five-day, five-state swing for Harris/Walz — news broke that yet another school shooting had taken place just 100 miles south of campus.
Earlier that morning in Winder, Georgia, a 14-year-old was taken into custody after allegedly bringing an AR-type rifle to Apalachee High School and using it to kill two 14-year-olds and two adults — the deadliest school shooting in the United States since the one that prompted Pearson’s protest.
The suspect in the Apalachee shooting had received the gun as a “Christmas present” from his father in 2023, just seven months after the FBI interviewed them both during an investigation into online threats of a mass shooting allegedly made by the suspect.
The suspect was charged with four counts of murder, with more charges possibly forthcoming. His father was subsequently arrested and charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of second-degree cruelty to children — similar to the parents of a Michigan school shooter, jailed in April for 10 years on involuntary manslaughter convictions after their son killed four students in a school north of Detroit in 2022.
The Apalachee incident was the 385th mass shooting of 2024, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines “mass shooting” as a minimum of four victims, not including the shooter. It was the 16th mass shooting in Georgia this year, bringing the total killed in the state so far to 18, with 67 injured. According to CNN, it was the 45th school shooting of the year. Those statistics were only accurate as of Sept. 7, as several more mass shooting incidents have been logged across the country since then.
“I think gun violence is one of the number one concerns for young people, people 18 to 36 in particular,” Pearson said. “Gun violence, climate change, and economic opportunity are top priorities. And the [Harris/Walz] campaign, with my being here today, is an effort to show the prioritization of this issue for people across the country.”
Harris has called for a ban on assault weapons — like the one in effect from 1994 to 2004, which produced mixed results — and has supported federal initiatives against gun violence, like the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act while also pushing for the creation of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, which acts as a resource for states that have implemented red flag laws to keep weapons out of the hands of people who are a threat to themselves or others.
“The campaign is going to continue to do all that it can and advocate for laws at the federal and at the state and local level to protect our communities,” Pearson said. “It doesn’t make sense that we live between the traumatization of school shootings in our country because of the inaction of people in positions of power. Vice President Harris is going to be the type of leader who is going to help us to end this gun violence epidemic.”
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has said, through advisors, that if elected he will protect Second Amendment rights by appointing federal judges who will oppose gun reform. After an Iowa school shooting in January, Trump called the incident “terrible” but told supporters, “We have to get over it. We have to move on.” His running mate, JD Vance, recently bemoaned the fact that school shootings are “a fact of life” and suggested “hardening” schools so they’re more difficult to infiltrate.
After Pearson’s remarks at WCU had concluded, a man walked into the building and poked his head into the room where the event had been held while Pearson was out in the hallway conducting an interview.
“We were all just sort of mingling around after the event, and a gentleman approached the door, and first he was asking us questions about who we are, what we were doing there, what was the nature of our event,” said Zach Powell, president of the WCU College Democrats, which hosted Pearson’s visit. “I just told him that we were the College Democrats of Western Carolina University. He had a sly grin on his face and was like, ‘Well, that’s great. I’m trying to start a college Republicans chapter here on campus. I am the chair of the Jackson County Republican Party.’ And then he just kind of walked off after we chuckled a little bit.”
According to Powell and others who were in the room when Keith Blaine made his appearance, Blaine made no threats, and the students weren’t intimidated.
“We are entirely focused on our goal of mobilizing Democrat students on campus and getting them out to vote in November,’ Powell said. “We aren’t really worried about what College Republicans or the Jackson County Republican Party are doing right now.”
Powell said there isn’t currently a college Republican club on campus, and that the conservative grassroots group Turning Point used to have a WCU chapter, which apparently folded more than six months ago.
Blaine refused to speak with The Smoky Mountain News about the incident, saying he was “booked.”
