*(CNN) — The GOP-controlled Tennessee Home of Representatives on Monday voted to silence certainly one of two Democratic members expelled from the chamber earlier this yr, because the legislature meets for a contentious particular session on public security spurred by a mass capturing at a Nashville faculty.
Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville was twice dominated out of order throughout debate Monday by Speaker of the Home Cameron Sexton, robotically triggering a vote to silence Jones for the rest of the day. The vote handed alongside occasion traces, 70-20, and Democrats walked out in protest.
“What is going on is just not democratic. It’s authoritarianism,” Jones mentioned in a video shared on X, previously often known as Twitter, accusing Sexton of silencing him as a result of the Democrat had earlier proposed a vote of no confidence towards the Speaker.
“It’s very troubling what we’re witnessing right here … this doesn’t appear to be a democratic physique anymore,” mentioned Jones, who was expelled in April after he and two different Democrats known as for gun reform throughout a protest on the ground of the state Home after the March 27 capturing on the Covenant Faculty, which left three 9-year-olds and three adults lifeless.
Republicans spared Rep. Gloria Johnson however voted to expel Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson – each Black – just for their constituents to ship them again to complete the common session on an interim foundation. They every received a particular election for his or her seats earlier this month, making their returns to the chamber everlasting, simply in time for the particular session known as by Gov. Invoice Lee.
The governor, a Republican, had urged the legislature to go an order of safety legislation after the capturing on the Covenant Faculty. However lawmakers adjourned the common session with out doing so, and Lee known as them again to the capital for the particular session, which convened August 21.
After greater than per week, there’s been little in the way in which of legislative accomplishments, in keeping with The Tennessean, which has reported a stalemate between each chambers, regardless of the very fact they’re held by the identical occasion. Whereas the Home takes up laws, the Senate has indicated it’s set on passing little or no, and just one invoice has been handed in each chambers, the newspaper reported.
Any vital gun-related laws has been largely ignored, upsetting gun management advocates. Lee on Monday requested Senate management to take up 12 payments associated to psychological well being and faculty safety, amongst others, The Tennessean reported.
Jones was first dominated out of order Monday for his sharp rebuke of proposals that will enable non-public colleges to undertake their very own handgun carry insurance policies, calling the proposals “reprehensible,” “asinine” and “insulting.”
Later, Jones was dominated off subject throughout a dialogue over a invoice to permit a neighborhood police or sheriff’s workplace to assign an officer to a faculty that doesn’t have already got one.
“What our colleges want are psychological well being professionals. We want funding for psychological well being, for counselors. We have to pay our lecturers higher. We don’t want extra police in our colleges,” Jones mentioned.
That triggered the vote to silence Jones, infuriating Democrats and gun management advocates within the gallery, who yelled in protest. Sexton ordered the gallery cleared “for disorderly habits.”
“Each single Democrat seems to have left the chamber,” mentioned Majority Chief William Lamberth, accusing them of “abandoning their work and their posts.”
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB: Nashville Sends Justin Jones Again to the Tennessee Home Days After GOP Lawmakers Ousted Him | WATCH
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