Gun violence in Tennessee continues to be at the top of activists' agendas, and want it to be at the top of others agendas as well.

On Monday, Rev. William J. Barber II joined student activists, politicians, local and national clergy for a "Moral Monday" rally in Nashville to demand that the Tennessee state house pass tough gun control laws, reports The Tennessee Tribune.

With more than 7,000 people attendees, the demonstration began with a rally at McKendree United Methodist Church, followed by a rally at the state capitol where pallbearers carried coffins to symbolize“the death from guns, death from denial of healthcare and death from poverty that results from extremists in legislatures across the country using state capitols to subvert our democracy.”

According to Barber, who is co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, the political process of Tennessee is eerily similar to other conservative movements occurring nationwide.

“All across the country, and especially in the South, we’re seeing attempted political coups d’etat,” Bishop Barber said in a statement. “This must be exposed. It must be challenged in a way that goes deeper than partisanism. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents must stand together to reclaim democracy. Legislators in these houses, when there’s an attempt to shut them down, must stand like the Tennessee Three and say, ‘We will not be silenced. With leading gun safety groups joining our moral movement, we are growing stronger by the day.”

During his speech during the rally, Barber described the political tactics of the Tennessee state government as “death by policy.”

“The legislators are back, but returning duly elected lawmakers to their seat does not solve the problem,” he said, demanding that lawmakers “stop committing policy murder.”

“The same people that suppress the vote block the gun bans,” he continued.” The same people that block gun bans block health care. The same people that block health care block (raising) the minimum wage. And the same people that block the minimum wage block environmental justice.”

The city of Nashville garnered national attention when Reps. Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson, who were also in attendance at the demonstration, were barred from the legislature by party-line Republican majority votes for protesting state gun laws in the aftermath of the Nashville school shooting in March. The Republican-led state house said that Jones and Pearson “violated decorum.”  Both legislators were reinstated last week.