Nashville — Covenant Families Action Fund, a 501(c)4 composed of parents and other family members of students at The Covenant School, responded to developments in the first several days of Tennessee’s special legislative session on gun violence.
The Covenant Families Action Fund supports progress made on House Bill 7012 and has hopes that this will pass both the House and Senate. HB 7012 focuses on secure, responsible storage of firearms, and includes provisions to give away gun locks, tax exemptions for other storage items, and funding for an awareness campaign.
“We still have a ways to go today,” said David Teague, the father of a Covenant student. “We want to encourage sane and reasonable people to engage in the political process by voting in primaries, seeking office, and supporting those who want to focus on solutions, and not foster anger and division.”
Covenant Families Action Fund believes parents’ claim to our children is always higher, our rights always stronger, and our burden always heavier. A just society should honor such an order, and in its lawmaking strive for the protection of families and children. That is why we strongly support HB 7007 and SB 7090. The Senate has an opportunity to pass their version of this bill tomorrow morning, and we urge its swift passage.
“Who was this child? To the public, they are information, a data point, a sensational headline, clickbait,” said Melissa Alexander, another Covenant parent. “To us, they are our hopes and dreams, the dinner table, soccer games, back-to-school, family vacations, birthdays, and Christmas morning.”
Covenant Families Action Fund is opposed to several draft bills that would put more guns in schools. House Bills 7064 and 7086 and Senate Bill 7019, include provisions for arming teachers. While school security funding should be increased, putting guns in the hands of people closest to our students can easily backfire.
“Firearms can only worsen the conditions in our school,” said Sarah Shoop Neumann, another Covenant parent. “The presence of firearms would fundamentally alter the relationship between teachers and students. This bill can only make the plight of our schools here in Tennessee, already among the worst performing in the nation, so much worse. It would interrupt student learning, drive teachers out of the classroom, and put our schools in more danger, not less.”
For more information, please contact Kathy Chambers of Strategic Principles LLC at kathy@stratprinllc.org or 615-424-3923.
Covenant Families is not affiliated with The Covenant School or Covenant Church, For more information visit: www.covenantbrightertomorrows.org
