NASHVILLE, Tenn. — People from around the state marched to the Tennessee Governor’s Mansion on Saturday to protest the “Arming Teachers” law.
Governor Bill Lee signed the bill into law the day before the demonstration. It lets educators who meet certain requirements bring guns into schools as long as their school districts pass policies allowing it. Teachers need to notify administrators that they want to bring guns to school, and the school also needs to notify local law enforcement.
However, parents will not be notified if their students' teachers bring guns into the classroom. Proposals that would have required guns to be secured away from students also failed in the legislature.
Gov. Lee said the new law is meant to give school districts a new tool to protect students — especially in rural areas that may not have many school resource officers. However, a parent at Saturday's march said she was scared for her daughter to attend school.
“This is going to be my daughter’s first year in school. There’s just too many scenarios. It’s just too irresponsible,” the mom said.
Several East Tennessee school districts said they would not allow teachers to bring guns into the classroom, including Knox County Schools and Maryville City Schools.
Soon after the law passed in the House, it became the focus of intense criticism from activists and many educators across the state. The proposal previously came up in 2023 but was shelved for a year following demonstrations calling for legislative action to prevent gun violence in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Nashville.
"I am still in shock and sickened by the legislature that thinks this is the solution to eliminate the risk of our students getting shot at," said Mary Joyce, the mother of a student killed in the Covenant shooting.
Soon after the shooting, that year's Vanderbilt Poll was released and revealed that guns were the third-most important issue according to polled voters — behind only education and the state's economy.
The poll found that 82% of respondents support strengthening background checks for gun purchases, such as what Gov. Lee proposed following the Covenant School shooting in Nashville. They also said that a majority of respondents supported a "red flag" law that would temporarily restrict gun access to people who pose a risk of harming themselves or others.
Tennessee's gun laws are ranked among some of the least restrictive in the U.S. and has a gun violence death rate of 20.9 per 100,000 people, compared to a national average of 14.4 gun violence deaths per 100,000 people, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
