JON CHERRY
Tennessee’s much-anticipated special legislative session, called by its Republican Gov. Bill Lee in the wake of a mass shooting at The Covenant School in March, came to a teary end on Tuesday with no legislation passed to restrict access to guns.
Footage from the state capitol showed the parents of students at The Covenant School bawling as they helplessly held signs in protest—their pleas of the last five months falling on the deaf ears of Tennessee’s deep-red state House and Senate.
Mary Joyce, the mom of a surviving Covenant student, wept as she told reporters she was “sick” of nothing being done in the shooting’s aftermath. Joyce said her daughter’s best friend, 9-year-old Hallie Scruggs, was shot dead in the massacre. Two other students and three staff members were also gunned down by Audrey Hale, a former student who was shot dead at the scene by cops.