This is my fourth column in the editor’s chair. At least, it is if my math is right. Somehow it’s been a month. I’ve already received a few letters about my editor’s letters, and I thank those readers for caring enough to reach out. I’d also like to apologize to Mark, who wrote in recently to say he appreciated the relatively politics-free columns so far. Sorry, Mark, but I’ve got to follow my conscience on this one.
Last week, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed legislation enacting permitless gun carry for Tennessee. The law will go into effect on July 1st and will allow anyone 21 years old or older to carry a handgun without passing some sort of permit course. The age is 18 for active-duty military personnel. What’s telling is that he signed the bill at a Beretta factory in Gallatin, Tennessee.
Not, you know, a police station, or some venue I can’t think of at the moment that symbolizes freedom. It’s no surprise that Lee didn’t choose a police station as the setting for the photo op, since there’s been little support from law enforcement for the bill. Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner spoke out against it, as did (then) Memphis Police Director Mike Rallings. So who was this legislation crafted to serve? If you wrote in “gun manufacturers and the NRA,” then, reader, our score cards are a perfect match.
I can almost imagine our governor turning around in his chair to look a Beretta spokesperson in the eye and whisper earnestly, “Did I do good, boss?”
Because this kind of pageantry makes it pretty clear who Lee’s hoping to appease, and it’s not us poor schlubs who will be wondering if Bubba in the self-checkout line has an itchy trigger finger to go along with that hip holster. The most recent Vanderbilt University Poll shows that 59 percent of Tennesseans do not support this bill, and, as I’ve already pointed out, most law enforcement officials are against it as well.
(Photo: Jesse Davis’ family photo album)
Before we go much further, I want to note that I was raised around guns. My grandparents lived out in the hills of Chester County, and we visited them often. Shooting was a regular pastime for most of my family. I remember walking in the woods with my granddaddy, who would occasionally ask me if the safety was on. I was supposed to know without checking, to always keep the barrel pointed toward the ground. To be mindful. I remember my grandparents’ neighbor Mr. Ray camping out one night to ambush and shoot the foxes who had been stealing his chickens. Whether you’re using them to protect yourself and your family or your egg-laying chickens, guns are tools, built to serve a purpose. But you’re supposed to know how to use a tool before you walk into a Cash Saver with one strapped to your hip.
If our governor really cared about safety, he would put on his good ol’ farmer cosplay plaid button-down shirt, cheese at the camera, and explain why law-abiding citizens shouldn’t worry about having to take a permit class. It’s short, easy, and not very expensive. He’d remind us all that we have a responsibility to each other, that enjoying the freedom to carry a gun means taking on the duty of using it safely.
That would be the direction to go if this bill were actually about public safety, but in reality it seems to be about little more than enriching corporate donors. If I had any doubts about that before, the photo op signing at Beretta has done nothing to dispel them.
This isn’t really a column about guns or gun rights. No, this is about responsibility — and my perhaps idealistic belief that our elected officials have a responsibility to the average citizens pushing the button at the voting kiosk, a responsibility that outweighs whatever they owe the folks funding their re-election campaigns.
I’d like to think I’d be equally frustrated if the law in question concerned relaxing vehicle emissions restrictions and Gov. Lee had signed it at the Nissan assembly plant in Smyrna. I don’t harbor a blanket fear or loathing for cars or guns. But I recognize that they’re powerful.
And power in the wrong hands can be dangerous.
