Ban Guns, Not Protest Signs

Apparently, Tennessee's Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Beth Harwell believe that protest signs are a larger threat to public safety than guns.

A policy they approved on December 14th bans "hand-carried signs and signs on hand sticks" from the General Assembly's new Cordell Hull building. They claim that signs "represent a serious safety hazard." As a Nashville resident who is represented by these legislators, I would like to point out that no one has ever been killed by a papercut. 

Holding up signs during legislative sessions has long been a tactic used by both liberal and conservative protesters to show our state representatives how we feel about an issue. Banning hand-held signs from the General Assembly building silences the very people that our legislators are supposed to be listening to and representing. The ban also undermines our first amendment right to free speech, one of the cornerstones of our
democracy.

 


It infuriates and terrifies me that while signs used for peaceful protest are banned from the building, guns used to kill people are still allowed. That's right, the new policy still allows anyone to carry a gun into the building where our state laws are decided.

Sign this petition if you believe that guns are much more of a "serious safety hazard" than signs. Sign this petition if you believe that blatantly violating our first amendment rights while putting American lives at risk is not only hypocritical, but just plain wrong. Sign this petition to demand that the Tennessee General Assembly lift the ban on protest signs in Cordell Hull, and instead prohibit guns.