Tennessee Planned Parenthood plans to bring armed activists to House special session on gun control: report

The plans were discussed during a meeting on Saturday hosted by Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood which included the group's executive director, Francie Hunt, and advocacy and organizing manager, Julie Edwards. A source infiltrating the event recorded the meeting and provided the audio to the outlet.

"TAPP is the advocacy and political arm to protect Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi (PPTNM). We fight so that PPTNM can provide the needed health care and sex education that is needed in our communities," Planned Parenthood notes on their site. The group states that they are advocating for abortion, birth control, and sex changes for minors in Tennessee. The group's Instagram pages has many opportunities to volunteer and learn about staging "direct action."

"Also, like there are groups in Nashville who do this – keep in mind – who like, if at any point you need armed security at a protest, there are people who we trust as a community to show up and do that," the organizer said during the meeting which focused on "protest safety."

"So this is like very much an intro into protest safety and what to do – how to come up with a plan if you are gonna plan an action,” the organizer said.

"But a big part of doing protest safety is knowing where you are best suited for. If you are best suited for logistics, you’re not best suited to be a safety captain that day. If you are somebody who shows up armed and you have that training, you are best suited to be off the safety roster that day. You are to be on the periphery of the action, not to be like, you know, doing crowd safety or crowd marshaling that day. You are there because you literally cannot be involved in the action. You are only on the periphery," she explained.

According to the audio, the group is discussing protesting–while being accompanied by armed security– at the state's special session in August where Republican Governor Bill Lee is reportedly planning on introducing new gun control regulations. Recently, one of their advocates, Bo Parr, was removed from the Tennessee state House after disrupting the legislative session to demand gun control.

At the beginning of Saturday's meeting, Julie Edwards said, "Keep in mind, the special session is August 21st, so everything we learn here today is to be applied towards the special session."

"So, we are investing in y’all as activists, with the promise that y’all will show up when we need you to show up. Including August, but also I know some of y’all aren’t from Nashville so we’re trusting y’all to go back in your communities, share this information and f*ck it up when it needs to happen," she concluded.

This comes after two of three Democrat legislators were removed from the state House for disrupting proceedings and calling for more gun control. Their actions were in response to a school shooting by trans-identified female Audrey Hale, who massacred three children and three adults at the Christian Covenant School in Nashville earlier this year. Those two legislators were reinstated to their elected posts.

The outlet reported that they obtained further audio during the meeting and will be releasing it in portions throughout the coming weeks.