(Washington) Two elected Democrats from Tennessee, who had demonstrated a week ago for better supervision of firearms following a massacre in a school, were expelled Thursday from the House of Representatives of this American state, with a Republican majority.
The elected officials voted in favor of the exclusion of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, who had joined hundreds of demonstrators in the precincts of parliament on March 30, demanding stricter regulation of firearms a few days following a shooting in a Christian school in Nashville, the capital of this southern state, during which six people lost their lives, including three children.
A third elected Democrat, Gloria Johnson, also threatened with exclusion for the same reasons, managed to keep her seat.
The protesters had entered the Capitol of Tennessee to challenge the local elected officials gathered in session. “What do we want?” Gun regulations! When do we want it? NOW ! “, they had chanted in the corridors.
MM. Jones and Pearson had notably used a megaphone to invite demonstrators to shout slogans such as “Power to the people” and “No action, no peace”, according to several American media.
PHOTO KEVIN WURM, REUTERS
Justin Pearson
“An elected official who has expressed his opposition can be excluded, this is unheard of in Tennessee. This has never happened in our history, ”reacted Justin Jones on American television.
“What the country sees is that we don’t have democracy in Tennessee,” he continued. “I will continue to hold them accountable for their actions […] It’s not just regarding me, but also regarding trying to silence and exclude the movement we’re trying to carry. »
Such a measure is extremely rare in the United States. The Tennessee parliament had only excluded two elected officials so far in its modern history, in 1980 and 2016.
On March 28, 28-year-old Audrey Hale broke into a Christian primary school, the Covenant School, with two assault rifles and a pistol, causing death before police shot her dead.
The tragedy, whose motive remains unknown, has aroused great excitement and revived the debate on the circulation of firearms in the United States, where they represent the first cause of death for minors.
“Today’s exclusion of elected officials who participated in a peaceful protest is shocking, undemocratic and unprecedented,” US President Joe Biden blasted in a statement late Thursday.
“Instead of debating the merits of the issue, these elected Republicans have chosen to punish, silence and exclude representatives elected by the people of Tennessee,” he added, once more calling on the United States Congress to ban the assault rifles.
It is nevertheless very unlikely that the president’s appeal will be heard: the conservatives, fervent defenders of the constitutional right to have weapons, are opposed to any significant legislative tightening at the federal level.