Tennessee Governor Bill Lee will sign an executive order to strengthen background checks for firearm purchases and is calling on state lawmakers to draft a more-expansive “order of protection” law to keep guns out of the hands of people who could be a danger to themselves or others.
His announcement on 11 April comes just days after the extraordinary move from the state’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives to expel two Black Democratic members who joined hundreds of protesters at the state capitol demanding lawmakers urgently adopt gun control legislation in the wake of a school shooting in Nashville.
