About a dozen college students calling for stricter gun control laws protested outside the Hamilton County Courthouse on Friday afternoon.
Kathleen Nicklas, a student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, organized the protest in response to recent mass shootings.
"The other day I saw a new headline for the bank shooting and I got so frustrated," Nicklas said. "And I thought ... everyone's waiting for someone to do something, I may as well do something myself. Even if it's something small like this, I feel like having the American people’s voices heard is so important."
An employee of Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday shot and killed five co-workers while livestreaming the attack. Eight others were injured, including a police officer who was shot in the head and remains hospitalized.
That shooting followed a March 27 shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville that left six people dead, including three 9-year-old children.
In the wake of that shooting, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called for state lawmakers to pass a law aimed at preventing guns from getting in the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others. The governor also signed an executive order aimed at strengthening background checks on firearm purchases.
The Tennessee Firearms Association criticized Lee’s effort, calling it a “knee-jerk” emotional response to justify government infringement of a right protected by the Constitution.
Staff Photo by Alison Gerber / About a dozen college students calling for stricter gun control laws protested outside the Hamilton County Courthouse on Friday afternoon. Kathleen Nicklas, a student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, organized the protest after hearing about the shooting at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday, in which five people were killed.