As the demonstrations and call for gun reforms increase after the brutal shooting incidents, Vice President Kamala Harris met with Tennessee three in Nashville to show support, according to a CNN report published Friday.
In her remarks at Fisk University chapel, she said, “Let’s not fall for the false choice, which suggests that you’re either in favour of the Second Amendment or you want reasonable gun safety laws, we can and should do both.”
While mentioning the recent brutal school shooting at Nashville local school last month that claimed six lives including three nine-year-old children, Kamala Harris said, “The underlying issue is one that we are witnessing, over and over again, this community experienced it firsthand just 11 days ago.”
During her visit, the vice president met with Democrat lawmakers of the Tennessee House. She also met privately with former Tennessee Democratic Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson — expelled from their chambers two days before after staging a demonstration in House on gun laws.
Representative Gloria Johnson, who survived the vote of expulsion was also present during the meeting.
Kamala Harris appreciated the Tennessee three for their efforts in House and said that they “chose to lead and show courage.”
“And they understood the importance, these three, of standing to say the people will not be silenced, to say that a democracy hears the cries, hears the pleas, who hears the demands of its people who say that children should be able to live and be safe and go to school and not be in fear,” Harris noted.
While underlining the White House’s resolve to uphold the true spirit of democracy, VP Harris noted that “We understand when we took an oath to represent the people who elected us that we speak on behalf of them,”
She went on to state that “it wasn’t about the three of these leaders. It was about who they were representing. it’s about whose voices they were channelling. Understand that – and is that not what democracy allows?”
Last Thursday, a protest was led by Tennessee three after which they were removed from their committee assignments.
The resolutions which led to the removal of the two lawmakers were put forth under Article II, Section 12 of the Tennessee Constitution, stating, in part, “the House can set its own rules and punish its members for disorderly behaviour, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.”
