The Tenneesee commission will vote on whether or not to remove a lawmaker

The Case for Gun Reform: Justin J. Pearson and the Expulsion of Jones and Pearson from the Shelby County Commission Building and his Voting Deciding to Leave

Today’s vote: Shelby County commissioners are set to vote Wednesday on appointing Justin J. Pearson to the House District 86 seat, which the 28-year-old vacated last week when he was forced out in a two-thirds majority vote by the GOP-dominated body after he and two Democratic colleagues participated in a demonstration calling for gun reform on the chamber floor.

Pearson said ahead of the vote he would lead a march from the National Civil Rights Museum to the county commission building. He wants to reform gun laws.

The events that led to us here include the expulsion of Pearson and Jones, who are both Black, as well as the return of Jones to the state House after a unanimous vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council. Gloria Johnson, who is a White woman, survived the vote last week and remained in her seat.

The Republicans voted to kick Pearson and Jones out of the house after they and Johnson broke procedural rules to join a protest against gun law reforms.

Pearson has faced a vote on his political future two times in the past three months. He won office in January, just two weeks after another lawmaker died before the election.

Lowery said that he understood the Republican leadership’s desire to send a “strong message” to Pearson and Jones. He said that the process brought an unfortunate outcome.

The Student Electoral Correspondence: Why Do Students Shouldn’t Disturb Memphis? A Conversation with Otis Sanford

Otis Sanford, a professor at University of Memphis, said the expulsion vote was a continuation of the racist past of the school.

But Sanford predicted young people in Tennessee will now get more involved with politics in their state. He also says the lawmakers who were singled out could have bright futures.

“On a more positive note, both Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, I think, showed the voters in their districts exactly why they should be reelected,” Sanford said. “But also, it seems like they made themselves look like future political stars nationally.”

Pearson told the supporters that they couldn’t give up hope. You can only expel our voice and you can only expel our fight. We look forward to continuing to fight, continuing to advocate.”

“We’ve got a problem in Nashville and it’s called a promise that they’re holding onto with the status quo. Their allegiance is to the way that things are. Their allegiance is to business as usual. Their loyalties are to the National Rifle Association.

Proposal for Pearson’s Appointment to Speaker of the Tennessee House District 52: Demonstration of Gun Control in the State Capitol

Tennessee law allows local legislative bodies to appoint interim House members to fill the seats of expelled lawmakers until an election is held, and the vote to appoint Pearson is expected to follow a similar process to Jones’ earlier this week.

Pearson said that the supermajority of the Tennessee General Assembly wanted to have a political lynching of three of its members because they spoke out against the status quo of the government.

How the process works: If Pearson’s nomination passes with a simple majority, the council will need a two-thirds vote to suspend a rule that requires a cooling off period before a final confirmation vote.

If that vote passes, Pearson could return to the House as soon as Thursday, when he and a certified copy of the minutes from the council meeting are expected to arrive in Nashville, where lawmakers will be in session at 9 a.m.

In a statement over the weekend, Shelby County Commission Chairman Mickell Lowery said he believed Pearson’s expulsion “was conducted in a hasty manner without consideration of other corrective action methods.”

Lowery said the leaders in the State Capitol understand the importance of the action and that they are ready to work in concert with them to assist with only positive outcomes going forward.

The lawmakers’ expulsions came as the long-simmering debate over guns in America boiled over in Tennessee following a mass shooting last month at a Nashville Christian school that left six people dead, including three 9-year-old children.

Jones, Pearson and Johnson took to the state House floor to advocate for gun control, using a bullhorn to address their colleagues and demonstrators who had gathered at the Capitol.

On Monday, Jones and his supporters marched the four blocks from City Hall to the Capitol after a resounding 36-0 vote by Nashville council members, reinstating him as an interim representative for House District 52.

Jones said that democracy will not be killed in the name of silence, as they sent a resounding message today. We sent a clear message to Speaker of the House. Cameron Sexton that the people will not allow his crimes against democracy to happen without challenge.”

“To anyone who has doubted the South, anyone who’s doubted the power of Tennesseans to advocate for an end to gun violence, anybody who’s doubted the movement to end assault weapons – anybody who’s doubted the movement, here’s your answer: The movement still lives,” Pearson said Monday as he stood on the steps of the Capitol alongside Jones.

Camelopoulian Sexton and the Tennessee Legislature: A Call for Gun Reform in the Light of the Louisville, Kentucky, Mass Shooting

Sexton earlier indicated he would not stand in the way of the appointments should local officials choose to send Jones and Pearson back to the chamber.

“The two governing bodies will make the decision as to who they want to appoint to these seats,” a spokesperson for the speaker’s office told CNN on Monday. “Those two individuals will be seated as representatives as the constitution requires.”

Upon his return – and in the wake of not only the mass shooting in Nashville, but another Monday at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky – Jones indicated he would continue to call for gun reform legislation.

The Louisville shooting is a “painful moment of recognition that our legislators and people like Cameron Sexton and the Republican Party in Tennessee and across the South in this country are not doing nearly enough to prevent guns from getting in the hands of people and doing all of the holistic work of gun prevention that is necessary in places across our communities,” Pearson told CNN.

Tennessee GOP governor wants tougher gun restrictions. Bill Lee, a Republican governor of Tennessee, is pushing for gun control measures in his state.

“I’m asking the General Assembly to bring forward an order of protection law. Lee said at the news conference that he would like to pass the legislation in the current legislative session which ends in a few weeks.

The governor encouraged the lawmakers from both parties to work on the issue of the order of protection plan.