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Gun-safety advocates protested on Wednesday, April 5, as Republican members of the Tennessee House Education Administration Committee voted to advance a bill that will allow teachers and other school staff to carry a concealed handgun.

A discussion and vote on the bill held by the Tennessee House Education Administration Committee took place one week after a six people were fatally shot at Covenant School in Nashville, and as House Republicans were making moves to expel three Democratic lawmakers from the House for joining gun-safety protesters at the Capitol on Thursday.

This footage from the committee meeting was posted by one of those Democrats, Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville, and shows protesters began heckling and directing criticism at Republicans backing the bill.

“Our community is still grieving last week’s mass shooting at Covenant elementary that took 6 lives— their solution is more guns. Shameful,” Jones tweeted. “This is the reaction from the mothers, teachers, and advocates gathered to oppose this reckless legislation,” he wrote alongside the video.

Many of the protesters were representing Moms Demand Action, which describes itself as “a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence.” Its parent organization is Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control.

One woman who identifies herself as a former teacher tells the committee: “I would never carry a gun to school, and I know how to use a gun and I own one, but I would never carry a gun in front of my students.”

Moms Demand Action Tennessee said “more than 50 volunteers” attended state committee meetings in Nashville on Wednesday calling for gun-control legislation. Credit: Rep. Justin Jones via Storyful