It’s been less than a week since another deadly mass shooting upended the lives of American citizens. On Monday (March 27), 28-year-old Audrey Hale entered Covenant School, an elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, and gunned down six people. Today (March 30), members of the community came together to show that they’ve had enough.
Video footage on social media shows thousands gathered at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville chanting, “Shame on you” to legislators, while calling for stricter gun laws. “Good for them! Young [people] changed the vote in the last election, and they will continue to do so. They are fed up,” one person tweeted after seeing footage of the protests. Another user wrote, “This is awesome… Now VOTE THEM OUT!!!”
Crowds gathered just as the legislative session began at 9 a.m. In some videos, people were seen having an altercation with armed guards. As one young man was taken away by officers, the crowd yelled, “Give him back.” Moments later, he was returned without further incident. “Tennessee better prepare to take swift action to deal with the fallout. Checking the temperature of the response to see strength or weakness. I live here, so it’s personal to me,” a local said of the clip. Another video from this morning showed a much calmer side of the protest and condemned individuals mocking the situation by calling it a “transurrection.”
The tweet referred, in part, to “an already small group of people just trying to exist. They are showing footage of parents and students who are afraid of going to school due to gun violence.” The post continued, “Here they are, holding up the number [six], for the victims who died: Three babies and [three] faculty members. THIS is who we should be talking about today in Tennessee at their State Capitol. All I ask is that if you see the hate, report it. Remember you are valid. Merry blessings.” Hale was identified by Nashville police officers as transgender and authorities confirmed the attack was pre-planned.
See more tweets with footage from the Tennessee State Capitol protest below.