As a gun control bill picks up steam in the Tennessee General Assembly, mental health advocates question the scope of the law and Democrats try to balance supporting Nashville’s newest lawmaker with effective strategy.
Rep. Shaundelle Brooks, D-Hermitage, won her Tennessee House seat in November’s election and an unexpected bipartisan victory in subcommittee last month, all on the promise of gun control to honor her late son, Akilah Dasilva.
Brooks is compelling to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as a mother who lost her son in a 2018 mass shooting at a Waffle House in Antioch, and as a hardworking freshman lawmaker who is carrying the water on her cornerstone bill herself, rather than sending staff to meet with her colleagues.
“Akilah’s Law” is a bill named for her son that she said would close a loophole in state law, allowing prosecutors to bring charges against people like Jeff Reinking, the father of the Waffle House shooter, Travis Reinking. Jeff Reinking returned to his son the guns that were used in the shooting, despite Travis Reinking’s known history of mental health and legal problems.