Nashville, Tennessee - Tensions ran high as Tennessee's special legislative session on public safety ended on Tuesday without substantive action to prevent gun violence.

The special session, called by GOP Governor Bill Lee in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Nashville last March, concluded without meaningful action as parents cried and chanted "vote them out."

"We had high hopes that after the shooting at Covenant School, politicians would understand the urgent need to prevent another senseless tragedy. They had the opportunity to do the right thing and once again, they failed to act," Zach Maaieh, head of the Students Demand Action Tennessee chapter, said in a press release.

At the end of the session, the GOP-controlled state legislature had passed only a handful of bills to do away with sales taxes on gun locks and safes, to require the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to put together annual reports on human trafficking, and to shorten the deadline for court clerks to share case information with the TBI.

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Both chambers also agreed upon a spending bill that would allot $30 million to boost safety at state universities, $12 million for behavioral health staff, $4 million for behavioral health safety grants, $50 million for community mental health agencies, and $10 million for school safety officers, primarily at charter schools, the Tennessee Lookout reported.

Gun reform advocates, who had been pushing for more comprehensive action like an extreme risk law, said the measures are nowhere near enough to prevent future tragedies.

"The biggest consequence from this whole session is the embarrassment of the General Assembly through offensive measures used to keep people out of the building, silence members of the House and eject grieving moms from committees," Democratic state Senator Jeff Yarbro told the Tennessee Lookout.

Tensions were running high, culminating in a standoff between Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Democratic state Representative Justin Pearson.

After the House called it quits on gun reform, Pearson, who was holding a sign that read "Protect kids not guns," said Sexton hit him with his shoulder.

"He leaned his shoulder into me and then one of his minions pushed me toward the clerk," Pearson related to the Tennessee Lookout. The 28-year-old accused Sexton of white supremacy, saying the Republican began screaming "Don't you touch me!" after the collision.

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Sexton denied the accusation, saying instead that his security guard had accidentally bumped into the Memphis lawmaker.

Other members of the House joined in the scuffle before the situation dissipated.

Just one day before, Sexton led efforts to temporarily silence Democratic state Representative Justin Jones after the 28-year-old lawmaker announced plans to call a vote of no confidence against the House Speaker.

Pearson and Jones were the two Black lawmakers who were expelled by Republicans after they led a protest for gun reform in the state Capitol. Both were reinstated on an interim basis before winning special elections earlier this month to hold on to their seats.