After a deadly school shooting in the southern US state of Tennessee last year, Democratic voters, lawmakers and even some Republican mothers called for stricter gun control laws.

But the state assembly blocked any progress, dashing hopes for change in a state that deeply values ​​gun rights.

“We’re single-issue voters, with guns being the number one issue,” said Melissa Alexander, a real estate agent, gun owner and mother who takes pride in her son’s hunting skills.

Despite liberal support, conservative resistance to gun control has deflated the issue to the point where it barely registers in the US presidential campaign.

Democrats have often championed gun reform — but this time even Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris emphasized her gun ownership in a country seemingly numb to mass shootings.

“I thought March 27 (2023) was going to be the tipping point for gun violence and gun safety,” said Justin Pearson, a local Democrat.

That day, a shooter killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School, an elementary school in Nashville.

“But I also thought we were going to do something as a country after Sandy Hook,” Pearson added, referring to the massacre that claimed 26 lives, including 20 young children.

Tennessee Army was held at “a conservative private Christian school, so I had a little bit of hope that this would be the threshold for them to really do something different — and they failed,” he said.

– “To be worse” –

Shortly after the tragedy, Pearson and another black elected official were expelled from the local legislature for protesting inside the institution — an extremely rare punishment.

A third white Democrat, who also advocated for stricter gun laws, was spared.

Both expelled lawmakers were quickly re-elected, but the tragedy failed to produce any legislation restricting access to firearms.

Instead, a new law passed this year allowed teachers to carry guns.

“We did everything we could to prevent this,” said Alexander, who, along with Mary Joyce, runs Covenant Moms, a group of school mothers who rallied after the shooting.

Their press conferences and meetings with elected officials, including Tennessee’s governor, proved futile.

“We were warned that it could make it worse,” Joyce said, referring to threats to force the teacher to carry weapons.

She believes her daughter, who lost part of her hearing during the attack, owes her survival to her teacher, who kept the children quiet in class.

“It is ridiculous, dangerous and irresponsible to expect teachers to take on a machine-gun-wielding attacker with a pistol,” she said.

Their only consolation is that no school district has implemented the measure yet, Alexander said.

Despite the stubbornness of their elected officials, the two women — who come from conservative families and have had little prior political involvement — are determined to continue campaigning for gun control laws consistent with the US Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms .

Speaking publicly about this “polarizing subject” feels “scary,” Alexander admitted.

Joyce was more direct: “I don’t want to be shot.”

– “Money and Power” –

Changing gun laws, let alone attitudes toward firearms, will not be easy.

“There are certain neighborhoods in and around Nashville where people are afraid to put up Harris for President signs,” said Carrie Russell of Vanderbilt University.

The political science professor explained that in Tennessee, as elsewhere, the Republican Party secured a “super-majority” through funding of the National Rifle Association and strategic redistricting.

“It comes down to money and power,” she noted. “Removing the well-funded Republicans who control these levers of power is nearly impossible.”

Several local Republican lawmakers declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

“I feel convicted. I’ve been ready to throw in the towel for the last two years,” said Clemmie Greenlee, founder of Nashville Peacemakers and Mothers Over Murder.

Since losing her adult son to gun violence in 2003, she has tirelessly supported dozens of grieving families.

Tennessee maintains one of the highest gun death rates in the country, with firearms being the leading cause of death among young people.

Permissive state laws allow 18-year-olds to buy assault rifles three years before they can legally buy alcohol, often without background checks.

The state also lacks “red flag” laws to temporarily remove guns from potentially dangerous people.

And at the federal level, for Greenlee, the situation is even more stuck.

“I don’t expect anything from Kamala (Harris) or Donald (Trump),” she said. “Gun violence, I’m not even talking about that.”

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