Daily Blast Live: Tennessee House of Representatives' Justin J. Pearson talks mighty return, race debate and more

Who says politics doesn’t get discussed around these parts? After the mind-blowing and shocking expelling of Tennessee House of Representatives lawmaker Justin J. Pearson last week over a gun control protest, he’s stepped up to dish on being reinstated and the wild past few days.

Tennessee House of Representatives lawmaker Justin J. Pearson joins ‘Daily Blast Live’

From talking about being expelled to what can be immediately done to put an end to children being killed from gun violence, Pearson goes all-in with his appearance.

Representative Pearson’s reaction to being expelled:

“The reality is we are suffering from the lack of democracy and anti-democratic behavior in the state of Tennessee. The expulsion of myself, Representative Jones and threatened expulsion of representative Gloria Johnson, is a part of an abuse of power and egregious overuse of authority by the Republican Party in the state of Tennessee against those who would advocate to end gun violence; against those who would like to see those who've been persecuted and those who have been pushed to the periphery to be the center of our conversations. And so because we won't accept the silence, the silence of people who are in positions of power to do something, the response by the majority has been to try and expel us, and actually to expel us, but the reality is our democracy is working and that people power movement to end gun violence and elevate the issues continues to win. And right after Holy Week, on the Day of Resurrection.”

 Pearson on his anticipation on being reinstated after the vote on April 12:

“I am hopeful that the majority of the Shelby County Commission will reappoint me to ensure that district 86 has representation here in the General Assembly. But I have to tell you all a part of this entire situation is the unveiling the uncovering the truth about what is happening in the Tennessee legislature and in Republican control. Legislatures across the countries where we're no longer having a democracy of debate and conversation but a mob autocracy, where there are people who are in positions of power who wield that power against others and right now, members of the Shelby County Commission have been threatened that we will lose hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding if I were reinstated.”

Pearson on whether or not he thinks this comes down to race:

“You cannot not see what you see. Right and we know the issue of race and gender undergirds  this decision. But the reality is some of our colleagues on the other side, all they want to do is say, well, ‘we're not racist.’ And so this has nothing to do with race. And the reality is we need to talk about how we got here. And it was because we use our First Amendment rights to stand up against the NRA, and against gun assault weapons being in the hands of normal people. That's because we listened to the people like those now in Louisville, Kentucky, who are saying we need to have change, and those in Nashville after Covenant, who said we need to have change that led to our expulsion and because we were going against the status quo. The people in positions of power here said we needed to go. I have so many people who are sick and tired of the endless amount. How many times have we reported on mass shootings overnight? I mean, I can't even tell you.” 

Representative Pearson on solutions to stop the trends of children dying to gun violence:

“It is a tragedy that we are in a situation where we literally have nine year olds who are dying at schools like Covenant and we have nine year olds who are protesting holding signs saying ‘Am I next?’ It's the responsibility of legislators and people in positions of power to not just send our thoughts and prayers but real solutions and some of those solutions are how do we prevent access to weapons of war to the hands of civilians. So banning assault weapons as was done in the 90s, ensuring that we have red flag laws that say that folks who shouldn't have access to guns, that none of us think have access to guns, don't have them. It’s making sure we have gun store safety laws. It’s making sure that we ensure that people don't have guns in their cars because a lot of weapons are being stolen from cars and used in crimes that have been committed. And it's also making sure we're putting hundreds of millions of dollars of resources, not into gun lobbying campaigns, but into communities to prevent gun violence in the first place. Those are some of the hard things that we can do. And doable things that most people in our country say are sensible and should happen because just protecting schools is not enough.”

“Children don't just live in schools. They go into communities where gun violence is also often rampant even in a district like mine and District 86. And the solutions that we have to offer have to be concrete. Preventing guns from getting into the hands of people who don't need them, as well as helping and supporting communities that do need more resources. We have to keep fighting and I encourage everyone to votejustinj.com. Sign up for our newsletter. We're going to solve this problem even in a state like Tennessee because it is a solvable problem. And we have people power and we have more righteousness on our side.”