Tennessee lawmakers delay gun bills after Nashville shooting as advocates demand action

Tennessee lawmakers on Tuesday chose to delay hearing a number of proposed bills related to firearms, a decision some gun safety advocates criticized as inaction in the wake of the deadliest school shooting in state history.

At least two General Assembly committees delayed gun-related bills expected to be considered on Tuesday. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, told a committee "we need to be respectful" of the slain members of The Covenant School community.

Three children and three adults were killed in a Monday morning attack carried out by a shooter police identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale. Responding Nashville police shot and killed Hale on the scene, while investigators on Tuesday said they still haven't uncovered a clear motive for the crime.

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The shooting has emotionally rocked Nashville, and a number of local lawmakers, all of whom are Democrats, responded with grief and anger in the halls of the Tennessee Capitol Monday afternoon while calling for colleagues to take action on gun access reform.

Prior to the Covenant shooting, Tennessee Republicans, who hold a supermajority in the General Assembly, had been moving to expand gun access.

Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti earlier this year struck a deal with plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit out of Knoxville that will allow all adults to carry handguns openly or concealed without a permit, background check or safety training. The law previously restricted it to adults 21 and older, along with those 18 to 20 who are in the military.

On Monday, a federal judge officially signed off on the state's settlement deal.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers sought a legislative avenue to do the same, filing a bill that would allow any adult to carry any firearm, even a semi-automatic assault style rifle, without a permit. The Tennessee Highway Patrol opposed the bill, leading the Senate to tailor the law to handguns only, but House leadership last week said they hoped to preserve the overarching "firearm" language.

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Moms Demand Action, a gun safety advocacy group, had already planned to send local advocates to a Tuesday committee hearing in support of a bill sponsored by freshman Rep. Caleb Hemmer, D-Nashville. House Bill 1233 would penalized gun owners for not securing firearms in a vehicle or boat, while also requiring owners to report any gun theft within 24 hours.

"I am disappointed we were not able to act on our bipartisan, common sense gun legislation today. The time to act is now and the safe storage bill is the bare minimum we can do to fix a gun safety issue we have in our community that is directly arming criminals," Hemmer said, citing recent data that show skyrocketing firearm thefts from vehicles.

Amanda Rosenberger, a Cookeville resident who attended a Massachusetts school rocked by a deadly shooting in 1992, was among the Moms Demand Action crowd that gathered outside the legislative office building on Tuesday. Speakers urged the several hundred people gathered to come back next week, when the legislation might be taken up again.

"We need to hold these folks accountable for the lack of action," Rosenberger said. "We need to hold them accountable for making even worse laws and proposing them while this carnage is on their streets."

Reach Melissa Brown at mabrown@tennessean.com.