Children from The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tenn., hold hands as they are taken to a reunification site at the Woodmont Baptist Church after a deadly shooting at their school on Monday, March 27, 2023.
The country should not be “celebrating the cult of the gun,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper told Today on Tuesday a day after a heavily armed shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three staff members of a Christian school in his city.
The attack at The Covenant School by a former student was the 10th school shooting of the year, by one count, a frustration for mayors like Cooper, a Democrat, in a state with few gun control laws.
“In Tennessee, guns are essentially ubiquitous,” Cooper said. “And when guns and mental health issues come into contact with each other you have big problems like we saw yesterday.
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Cooper was asked about a photograph that had been posted on Facebook by Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, showing the congressman and his family posing with firearms in front of a Christmas tree.
“I think the whole country can look at it and shudder a little bit and realize how inappropriate it is,” Cooper said. “Guns lead to tragedies and whatever your political feelings are we should not be celebrating the cult of the gun.”
Ogles, who represents the district where the shooting occurred, is being criticized by gun control advocates for the photo, which has since been taken down. His representatives did not respond for comment about the photo but earlier Monday Ogles told NBC News, "At a time like this I’d just encourage everybody to pray for the families and those affected."
Asked if there was anything he could do in Congress to prevent another shooting, he said, ‘That’s all I’ve got for now.”
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Ogles campaigned as a protector of the Second Amendment and his campaign website says, “Disarming the people is the most effective way to enslave them, and we must remain vigilant when anyone seeks to erode our civil liberties.”
The shooter, whom police identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, arrived at The Covenant School carrying two AR-style weapons and a handgun. A former student of the school who was transgender, the shooter left behind a map and writings that police are studying, police said.
The small Christian school, which is attached to a church, is for pre-school through the sixth-grade pupils.
Everytown for Gun Safety counts the Nashville shooting as the 10th of the year in which someone was attacked with a gun at a school, and injured or killed.
According to the Giffords Law Center, an organization started by former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, Tennessee had the 10th highest gun death rate in the country in 2020.
As far as its gun control laws, Giffords notes that the state lacks universal background checks, assault weapons restrictions, gun licensing, a large capacity magazine ban, waiting periods and other measures.
Cooper said Tennessee needs to consider what he called “common-sense reforms” that would make a difference but not be onerous for gun ownership. He acknowledged change would be difficult in the state.
“We used to do this years ago,” Cooper said. “What’s happened is we’ve rolled back any common-sense understandings about how these assault weapons in particular are managed in America. And you end up with disasters and tragedies and it’s not the diminishment of people’s rights. It’s how we live together safely.”
Note: The school shootings shown here refer to incidents categorized by Everytown as an "Attack on others", where at least one person was killed or injured. Source: Everytown for Gun Safety's school shootings database.
Amy O’Kruk/NBC
