Mom Interrupts Nashville School Shooting Broadcast With Passionate Gun-Control Plea
One brave mother interrupted news broadcasts to demand gun reform following the elementary school shooting in Nashville on March 27. An activist later identified as Ashbey Beasley attended a press conference held near the Covenant School, where a 28-year-old former student fatally shot three students and three adults. After local police announced updates on the incident, Beasley stepped up to the microphone and asked reporters, "Aren't you guys tired of being here and having to cover all of these mass shootings?"
Beasley noted that she and her son survived the July 4 parade shooting in Highland Park, IL, last year, and they happened to be in Tennessee for a family vacation when she heard about the latest mass shooting.
"How is this still happening?"
Beasley continued, "I have met with over 130 lawmakers. How is this still happening? How are our children still dying, and why are we still failing them?" She posed a harrowing statistic to drive home her point: "Gun violence is the No. 1 killer of children and teens. It has overtaken cars. . . . These mass shootings will continue to happen until our lawmakers step up and pass gun-safety legislation." Though some stations, including Fox News, cut away from her impassioned plea, the mother concluded by revisiting her initial question: "Aren't you guys tired of this?"
During an interview with CNN that same day, Beasley alluded to alarming inaction from lawmakers on imposing stricter gun-control laws. "Only in America can somebody survive a mass shooting and then go on vacation . . . and find themselves near another mass shooting. Only in America does this happen where we keep seeing this again and again and again." She added, "Gun violence is an epidemic, and it needs to be resolved. It needs to be addressed."