On August 8, 2008 a student of Central High School in Knoxville walked into the cafeteria before school had started and fatally shot a fellow student. The student turned and left the school. The school Principal, a dear friend of mine, lead his school into its practiced lockdown mode. The Director of Knoxville Knox County Emergency Management, the godfather of my three children, arrived to manage the chaos of local politicians seeking the press attention.
Those two men who were good friends looked at each other and said they never thought they would be in this situation together. Another one of my friends Gloria Johnson was a teacher at Central High School and was also put into a life changing situation. Gloria experienced the tragic shooting personally as she calmed students who ran to her room and led students through the evacuation to the church and waited for parents to arrive.
Governor Lee has stated that he wants to explore new gun laws for Tennessee. I support his move to look for an expansion of gun laws for our state. I do strongly suggest that Governor Lee and Speaker Sexton understand that in the Tennessee House there sits Representative Gloria Johnson who has a personal experience of gun violence and is a gun owner. Gloria is the most qualified person in the Tennessee Legislature to sit on a committee to study gun legislation. Tennessee should take a step toward an unbiased America and put Gloria on the committee that studies gun legislation.
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