NASHVILLE, Tennessee, April 6 (Reuters) - Republicans in control of the Tennessee House of Representatives expelled two Democratic representatives on Thursday for breaking decorum during a gun control demonstration at the statehouse last week in the wake of the latest school shooting.
The resolution to oust a third Democratic member who stood with them during the protest on the House floor, Gloria Johnson, a white woman, came up one vote short.
That protest came four days after a Nashville school shooting killed three 9-year-old children and three school staff members.
[1/10] Protesters gather in the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., April 6, 2023.
Johnson, Jones and Pearson have said that taking part in the protest was within their First Amendment rights - the constitutional right to freedom of speech.