Who’s to say something crazy—a meteor strike or a rampaging rhinoceros—won’t change the whole story after you file it?

Still, I’d be willing to file the following story now for publication two months from now, at the end of the Tennessee General Assembly’s regular legislative session:

On Tuesday, February 27, hundreds of Tennesseans traveled to Capitol Hill in Nashville, met in small groups with individual legislators, and asked them to pass basic gun safety laws that polls show most Tennesseans support. The Tennessee General Assembly didn’t pass any of them because the Republican supermajority refused to take them up.

We’ve learned from these determined Tennesseans that private meetings between Republican legislators and their constituents don’t translate into laws that most Tennesseans want.

We’ve learned from them that public pressure to move the Republican supermajority from its predetermined stance on anything is met with dismissiveness if not outright hostility.

We’ve learned from them that almost any legislation sponsored by a Democrat, no matter how reasonable or popular with the people, is dead in the water.

We’ve learned from them that until we break the Republican supermajority in the Tennessee General Assembly, this is how it’s going to be.

I spent Tuesday tethered to my desk, but I kept up with things as best I could.

Tuesday morning a friend texted me a picture of a long line of determined Tennesseans making their way on foot to Capitol Hill.

Tuesday afternoon another friend texted me from outside a Republican lawmaker’s office. I wished him luck with the meeting. He texted back a line from that song about the ant and the rubber tree plant.

Tuesday night I saw a video of Senator London Lamar pleading with her Republican colleagues to take up her bill accepting federal funds for a community-based violence-prevention program. It wasn’t a gun law, but it would prevent gun crime. Similar programs have proven effective in various cities, including Knoxville.

She pled eloquently as a Memphian and a mother. Memphis has the fourth-highest violent crime rate in the United States. Guns are the leading cause of death of children in Tennessee. “I hope you hear the passion in my voice,” she concluded. “I’m laying it all out here, asking for your support.” Her bill was blocked in committee.

Where’s a rampaging rhinoceros when you need it? Of course that wouldn’t fix the problem. What we need is more ants.

Keep pushing. We’ll make it happen. I have high hopes.

Allison
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