Tennessee lawmakers express frustration the state Department of Safety is failing to follow through with gun-safety ads for which the legislature approved funding. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)
Tennessee’s Department of Safety is failing to follow through on a $1.6 million campaign for safe gun storage in vehicles, despite a major increase in weapon thefts from cars and trucks, lawmakers say.
Lawmakers approved the funding in an August 2023 special session on public safety for a firearms public awareness drive that was supposed to target vehicle break-ins. Gov. Bill Lee called lawmakers into that special session but was unable to pass any consequential gun-related bills in response to the Covenant School shooting in which six people were killed, including three children.
Since then, the Department of Safety has produced a weapon safe-storage commercial for homes but nothing dealing with vehicles, where lawmakers say the problem is the worst.
The state’s public service spot shows a man overseeing his son using a shotgun to fire at aluminum cans. Meanwhile, in the house, the man’s daughter pulls a rifle from a closet and appears to be on the verge of firing it, before the video shows the rifle is equipped with a safety lock designed to keep children from loading it and pulling the trigger.
Rep. Caleb Hemmer (D-Nashville) supports that commercial but is “frustrated” with the state’s refusal to target safe gun storage in vehicles. Hemmer and Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) ran into opposition from Republicans when they sponsored a bill requiring, then encouraging, people to lock weapons in vehicles.
“We have this problem, and we put money to deal with it and they’re only dealing with 10 percent of the problem, not 90 percent of it,” Hemmer says.
He notes the department is not even “thinking about addressing it,” after public and private “prodding.”
Critics of Tennessee’s gun law argue that weapon thefts from vehicles increase dramatically after the Legislature passed the permit-less carry law five years ago. State law, based on the Attorney General’s interpretation of a court decision, now allows people 18 and above to carry without a permit. Yet they are not allowed to take their weapons into many businesses and leave them in vehicles unsecured.
Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake circulated statistics immediately after the Covenant School shooting in 2023 showing vehicle thefts jumped to 1,378 in Nashville in 2022 from 848 in 2019 and to 2,740 in Memphis from 1,159 in the same time frame.
I’m very adamant that we need to inform the public that when you get out of your vehicle you have it safely stored if you can’t take it with you.
– Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis
The state’s two largest urban areas saw a downtick last year. Metro Nashville reported 984 weapons stolen from cars in 2023, while Shelby had 2,113, according to information from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Many weapons are stolen from vehicles by teens and wind up being used in violent crimes, such as the 9mm pistol juveniles pulled on a Belmont graduate and musician Kyle Yorlets when he was shot to death in February 2019.
Republican state Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis), who carried the measure for a safe storage campaign in the 2023 special session, said Monday he had spoken with Hemmer and the Department of Safety and plans to keep pushing the message.
“I’m very adamant that we need to inform the public that when you get out of your vehicle you have it safely stored if you can’t take it with you,” White says.
White, whose efforts to pass safe gun storage laws failed several times, says the Department of Safety told him it was just starting to get “ramped up” on the safe gun storage campaign.
Safety Department spokesman Wes Moster did not respond to Tennessee Lookout questions about the public service spots and why they don’t deal with vehicles.
Instead, he said there has been “no delay” in the advertisements, which are being distributed statewide across radio, television and movie theaters. In addition, spots on streaming services, social media, newspapers and billboards will be sent out this summer.
“The department will strategically determine whether additional advertisements will be made,” Moster said in an email response to Lookout questions.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.
Legislation to let some public school teachers carry handguns advanced Tuesday in the Tennessee Senate as the Republican-controlled legislature quashed new attempts to tighten the state’s lax firearm laws following last year’s mass school shooting in Nashville.
The bill, which still faces votes before the full Senate and House, would let a teacher or staff member carry a concealed handgun at school after completing 40 hours of certified training in school policing at their own expense, as well as passing a mental health evaluation and FBI background check.
The local district and law enforcement agency would decide whether to let faculty or staff carry a gun under the bill co-sponsored by Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta and Rep. Ryan Williams of Cookeville, both Republicans.
But parents would not be notified if their student’s teacher is armed, which runs counter to the GOP’s emphasis on parental rights and notification on education matters such as curriculum and library materials.
“The director of schools, principal, and the chief of the local law enforcement agency are the only ones notified of those permitted to carry,” Bailey told senators, “and they are not to disclose if someone is or is not permitted to carry on school grounds.”
The 7-1 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee comes as Tennessee’s legislature continues to pass measures aimed at fortifying school campuses rather than restricting gun access in one of the most gun-friendly states in America.
Gov. Bill Lee later called lawmakers back for a special session on public safety. But none of the bills that passed specifically addressed concerns about easy access to guns that were raised by the March 27 shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, where a 28-year-old intruder, who police said was under a doctor’s care for an “emotional disorder,” used legally purchased guns to shoot through the glass doors.
This year, bills moving through the legislature would require age-appropriate gun safety training for school children as young as kindergarten; change school fire alarm protocols to take into account active-shooter situations; create a pilot program to give teachers wearable alarms; increase safety training for school bus drivers; and set guidelines to digitize school maps so first responders can access school layouts quickly in an emergency, among other things.
Meanwhile, Democratic-sponsored legislation to restrict gun access by broadening background checks and promoting secure firearm storage have met swift defeats. Earlier on Tuesday, one House panel dismissed, without discussion, a bill seeking to ban semi-automatic rifles in Tennessee.
School safety is one of the top three education concerns of Tennessee parents, but significantly fewer parents agree that schools are safer when teachers are armed, according to the latest results in an annual poll from the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy.
Sen. London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat who voted against the measure, said more guns aren’t the solution to stopping gun violence.
“I do not think that it is the responsibility of teachers in our state, who have taken the oath to educate our children, to now become law enforcement officers,” she said.
Lamar also expressed concern about one provision to shield districts and law enforcement agencies from potential civil lawsuits over how a teacher or school employee uses, or fails to use, a handgun under the proposed law.
Organizations representing Tennessee teachers and school superintendents prefer policies that place an officer in every school over any that could arm faculty.
But Bailey told the Senate panel that nearly a third of the state’s 1,800-plus public schools still don’t have a school resource officer, despite an influx of state money to pay for them.
Law enforcement groups have struggled to recruit enough candidates because of inadequate pay, occupational stress, and changing public perceptions about the profession.
“Everybody’s got a shortage right now, but it’s been going on for years,” said Lt. Kyle Cheek, president of the Tennessee School Resource Officers Association.
Cheek, who oversees school-based deputies in Maury County, said equipping a teacher for school policing would require extensive training beyond a basic firearms course. And it would raise other concerns too.
“Who takes care of the teacher’s class if they’re going to check out a security issue?” he told Chalkbeat. “It’s a huge responsibility.”
The advancement of Bailey’s Senate bill means the measure likely will face votes this month in the full Senate and House before the legislature adjourns its two-year session.
The House version cleared numerous committees last year, but Williams did not pursue a vote by the full chamber after the Covenant tragedy prompted gun control advocates to stage mass protests at the Capitol.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Last Friday, a civil court jury in New York City found Wayne LaPierre, the now-former head of the National Rifle Association (NRA), liable for mishandling $5.4 million of the organization’s money.
Apparently unable to squeak by on his meager $2.2 million annual salary, LaPierre rolled up charges of more than $270,000 for clothes from a Zegna boutique in Beverly Hills, billed tens of thousands of dollars for private charter flights for himself and relatives, and took numerous extravagant NRA-paid vacations. In addition, LaPierre often billed the NRA for a stylist who charged $10,000 a session for hair and makeup for his wife, Susan LaPierre. Fancy!
The trial, prosecuted by New York Attorney General Letitia James, uncovered other fiduciary misdeeds, including that of LaPierre’s personal assistant, Millie Hallow, who he retained even after she was caught funneling $40,000 in NRA money to pay for her son’s wedding.
In leading the “nonprofit” organization that is arguably responsible for more civilian gun deaths than any in American history, Wayne LaPierre got rich and lived large. He famously said, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” It now appears that you can also stop a bad guy with a gun with a lawsuit. Or at least, make him resign.
The truth is the NRA has been in something of a decline. Membership has dropped by nearly a third — from 6 million members to around 4 million members — in little more than five years. And an internal audit cited by TheNew York Times found that the organization’s revenue is down 44 percent over the past eight years.
Despite these numbers, the NRA still has significant investments that pay consistent dividends year after year. These include, among many others, senators Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, and Tennessee’s own Marsha Blackburn, who the NRA has funded to the tune of more than $1.3 million. (No word on whether Marsha was ever in line for one of those sweet $10,000 hairstylin’s.)
These political stalwarts assist their blood-stained benefactor by opposing such scary bills as the Protect America’s Schools Act and the Keep Americans Safe Act — which proposed to limit the size of gun magazines. It’s the position of Marsha, Mitch, and their NRA buddies that we can’t be forcing mass shooters to reload too often because it infringes their Second Amendment rights.
Still, as I mentioned above, there is some hope that we may be witnessing the end of an era. According to the Open Secrets organization, the NRA recently reported its largest-ever year-to-year decline in federal lobbying spending — from $4.9 million in 2021 to $2.6 million in 2022. There was also a decline in NRA spending in federal elections from $54.5 million in 2016 to $29.1 million in 2020.
Even given those encouraging trends, however, there’s no denying that LaPierre and the NRA managed to thoroughly transform the American political landscape over the past 25 years. Few Republicans have the courage to support gun reform — because they fear the NRA. And thanks to the NRA, the Second Amendment has been twisted to mean that any kind of permit or gun training or limitation as to where guns can be carried is a violation of holy writ. “Democrats will take your guns” is an ever-recurring election year mantra for the GOP. More than half of the 50 states have essentially no gun regulations for permitting or carrying. Thoughts and prayers are allowed — for now — but don’t get too carried away with those thoughts.
There is a 2013 video obtained by The New Yorker of LaPierre shooting an elephant in Africa. It’s on YouTube, but I do not recommend that you watch it, unless you consider such hunting a “sport.” LaPierre is guided to an ambush position where he can shoot the great animal from close range. It falls to the ground, lying still, groaning in agony. LaPierre takes three more shots into the moaning beast from 20 feet away but is unable to hit the kill spot pointed out by the guide, who is finally forced to make the kill.
There is a metaphor there for Republicans. There is a lesson there for all of us. Who can name the great beast?
Every Tennessee student would have to get gun safety training at school under new Republican legislation, but some Democrats think the law accepts gun violence at school as a “new normal.”
The Tennessee Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE) Act already mandates school safety planning strategies. It covers fire emergencies, severe weather events, prohibits weapons, and more. The law also mandates school districts to have procedures in place to respond to the report of a firearm on campus.
A new bill would add gun safety curriculum to the SAVE Act and parents could not opt their child out of the training.
With the new law, three state agencies — the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, the Tennessee Department of Education, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency — would determine the most appropriate age to begin gun training for kids in school. But classes could start as early as pre-K and continue all the way through high school. Local school districts would then decide how to implement gun safety instruction into their students’ schedules.
The bill would teach students about the safe storage of guns, school safety relating to guns, how to avoid injury if the student finds a gun, to never touch a found gun, and to immediately notify an adult of the location of a found gun. This instruction should be be “viewpoint neutral on political topics, such as gun rights, gun violence, and the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.” The training should also not include the use or presence of live ammunition, live fire, or live guns.
School districts would decide who teaches the gun safety courses. Those courses “are certainly not about how to handle a firearm or proper techniques or anything like that,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Chris Todd (R-Madison County). “This is literally going to be more on the lines of ‘if you see a gun, [tell] an adult.’”
Todd said he sees gun training at school as just an extension of safety training already happening at schools within the SAVE. Act. He said members of gun clubs across the state, including the Alpha Gun Team of Memphis, stand behind the bill, too.
”We see this proposed legislation as a critical step in averting firearm related accidents while fostering greater awareness and responsibility among gun owners,” Todd said in a Tuesday hearing.
Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), a retired school teacher, said schools have long drilled students to react to acts of nature, like fires and tornadoes. Gun have been around for a ling time, too, she said.
“But we haven’t had our classes shot up,” she said. “This isn’t something we should just accept as the new normal. We can stop this. And this [bill] isn’t going to do it.”
Johnson said mandating students to take the gun safety course could trigger some students who had a history of gun violence in their family and would leave them at school alone without a parent to ensure they are okay.
Todd said students cannot now opt out of fire safety training, even if they’ve been in a fire or lost their home in a fire. Students still need to learn fire safety, he said.
“I just think it’s part of life that we need to learn those skills,” Todd said.
Rep. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville) argued for an opt-out from the program, saying some parents may not want their children “talking [about], touching, or introduced to guns at all,” especially for some who want to opt out for “religious reasons.”
“We should be able to have someone to opt out of this if they don’t choose this as appropriate for their child,” Dixie said. “I thought we believed in parents’ choice.”
Rep. Mark Cochran (R-Englewood) countered, saying that the “chances of a minor seeing a gun at some point is … that’s a reality of life, as [Todd] mentioned earlier.”
Rep. John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) told committee members that many teachers are “former veterans who are trained hunters who go through hunter safety training” and could easily teach the courses. He said allowing students to opt out of other safety training courses “is ridiculous” and that a parent’s objection to gun training “is entirely misplaced.”
“It would be the equivalent, for example, of us saying to an Amish parent, because they prefer to ride in a horse and buggy, that their children shouldn’t be trained on how to cross the street with automobile traffic,” Ragan said. “Safety is safety. Opting out of it is ridiculous.”
Surrendered guns will begin to be transformed into garden tools on February 24th at Evergreen Presbyterian Church. During the church’s “Guns to Gardens” event, surrendered guns will be immediately cut up with a chop saw. Later, they’ll be turned into garden tools and art objects by artisans with the Metal Museum.
“Like so many in our community, our church is concerned about the extreme level of gun violence in Memphis and the lives that are being devastated every day,” said Evergreen pastor Reverend Patrick Harley. “We are offering this event as an affirmation of our commitment to peacemaking by working to reduce gun violence in Memphis and Shelby County.
“People who, for whatever reason, have guns they no longer want will be able to safely and anonymously surrender those firearms to be dismantled and later transformed into garden tools. This is foundational to our faith — taking weapons designed to destroy and transforming them into tools that bring life.”
During the drive-through event, gun owners must bring their guns unloaded and stored securely in the trunk or rear of their vehicles. While those owners remain in their cars, their guns will be dismantled with a chop saw.
No background checks will be conducted and no personal information will be collected. Unlike a “buy back” event, gun ownership is not transferred. Gun owners will be offered Kroger gift cards ($50 for handguns, $100 for rifles and shotguns, and $150 for semiautomatic and automatic guns, while supplies last) as a way to thank people for disposing of unwanted guns. Spiritual and mental health support will also be available on-site.
The project is part of the national “Guns to Gardens” movement, which works to reduce gun violence by reducing the number of guns in homes and communities. Similar events have taken place across the country, resulting in the dismantling of thousands of guns.
The gun parts collected at the event will be given to the Metal Museum, which will host a special event on March 23rd to display the transformed guns. Artisans will demonstrate techniques used in creating the objects.
“Gun owners may want to surrender guns for a range of reasons,” the church said in a news release. “The gun owner may have children or grandchildren in the home; a gun owner may have reached an age where they no longer feel that they can safely handle weapons; a gun may have been returned to family by the police after it was used in a suicide or accident; there may be conflict in a family or there may a family member with a serious illness.
“Guns to Gardens provides a way to dispose of unwanted guns without returning them to the gun marketplace, where they could be used for future harm.”
Details
What: Evergreen Presbyterian Church Guns to Gardens Safe Surrender Event
More than 70 percent of Memphis’ reported crimes for the first three quarters of 2023 have involved guns.
Data released by the Memphis Police Department show that gun-involved incidents accounted for 6,019 (72.7 percent) “of all reported violent incidents. MPD defines violent incidents as homicides, forcible rapes, carjackings, robberies, aggravated assaults, and aggravated child abuse.)
“This is an increase of 10 percent compared to the same time period in 2022,” said the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission (MSCC) in a statement.
MPD also found that in the majority of the “reported domestic violence aggravated assaults,” guns were found to be the weapon of choice. This accounted for 52.5 percent of reported incidents in 2023.
Credit: Memphis Shelby Crime Commission
The agency has also reported that the number of guns stolen from vehicles has declined by 12.7 percent from 2022. They believe that this is “due in part to increased awareness among both residents and visitors about the dangers of leaving unsecured guns in vehicles.
Credit: Memphis Shelby Crime Commission
While the numbers have decreased over the year, the MSCC said the numbers have still “escalated significantly” since the Tennessee General Assembly allowed guns to be in vehicles without a permit.
As gun-related crimes continue to be an issue, MSCC has outlined ways to combat these crimes in their 2022-2026 Safe Community Action Plan.
“It is not intended as a strategic plan encompassing every good idea that various entities are pursuing but rather an action plan composed of steps that can be taken rather immediately to prevent and reduce crime, especially violent crime,” said a statement from MSCC
A day after the March 27th mass shooting at The Covenant School, a woman is overcome with emotion in front of an impromptu memorial. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Children are dying at higher rates from gun violence in Tennessee than in the rest of the nation, an ongoing geographic disparity that has only widened in recent years, and one that most gravely impacts the state’s Black families, whose children and teens are being killed by firearms at twice the rate as white kids.
The data tracking child deaths in Tennessee between 2017 and 2021 was released as part of an annual report compiled by the Tennessee Department of Health with the assistance of district attorneys, child welfare advocates, elected officials, and other experts who regularly meet in teams to review the deaths of Tennessee kids year-round.
The report this year was released just ahead of a special legislative session called to address public safety after a lone assailant fired 152 rounds inside a Nashville Christian school, killing three nine-year-old children and three adults in less than 15 minutes, according to police.
The report focuses on all causes of child deaths among kids 17 and younger, finding that the overall mortality rate from all causes — accidents, suicides, premature births, other medical conditions and murder — in Tennessee is nearly twice the national average.
Gun deaths among children, however, have increased by significant rates; by 2021, Tennessee’s rates of firearm deaths among children were more than 36 percent more than the national average.
In 2021, the latest year analyzed, 67 Tennessee children died by homicide. Fifty-three of the victims were Black, a rate four times as high as white children.
“Child health is a critical indicator of a society’s well-being,” the report noted. The burdens of homicide among Tennessee children is higher among Blacks, males, and children aged 15 to 17, with firearms being the leading means of lethality.
The racial disparity is reversed when it comes to children and teens who died by suicide, with white children six times as likely to take their own lives. Suicides accounted for the deaths of 32 white children and five Black children between 2017 and 2021. More than half of all suicide deaths among Tennessee children (54 percent) were a result of firearms.
The report does not make specific recommendations, instead noting two “prevention opportunities”: promoting safer firearms handling and storage and programs encouraging parental supervision.
The prevention opportunities mirror the current GOP-driven legislative agenda for the special session, set to begin August 21st. While advocates for gun safety laws, among them parents of children who attend The Covenant School, have called for stricter background checks and other gun regulations, Gov. Bill Lee has set an agenda that includes unspecified recommendations for firearm staff storage.
The governor’s agenda, set forth in a proclamation also makes mention of protective orders, but other elected GOP leaders have made clear they will not consider any measures that would remove guns from any individuals.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Thefts of guns from cars reached a record high last year, according to the Shelby County Crime Commission.
New data from the organization show 2,441 guns were stolen from cars in 2022. That’s up from 2,042 stolen from cars in 2021.
In 2011, 287 guns were stolen from cars. From January to March 2023, 617 guns were stolen from cars.
“In 2014, the Tennessee General Assembly enacted legislation eliminating the need for a permit in order to possess a handgun in a vehicle,” reads a statement from the commission. “Since then, the theft of handguns from vehicles has skyrocketed in Memphis.”
From left: Butler, Richey, and Warner I State of Tennessee
Three Tennessee Republican lawmakers want Governor Bill Lee to “abandon” a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly, scheduled for later this year to focus on gun safety, calling it a “publicity stunt” that will incite the “national woke mob.”
Rep. Bryan Richey (R-Maryville), Rep. Ed Butler (R-Rickman), and Rep. Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) signed an open letter to Lee Wednesday saying any gun measures can be addressed during the regular session in January.
“Summoning legislators to Nashville to enact an unconstitutional ‘red flag’ law will not, as you suggest ‘strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights,” reads the letter posted to Twitter by Richey. “To the contrary, the General Assembly adamantly opposes — and refused to enact — measures that violate Tennesseans’ Second Amendment rights, whether styled ‘order of protection’ legislation or any other euphemism.”
The letter reminded Lee that the legislature did not consider his gun safety legislation at the end of the last session. It said Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson has said the legislature will “not pass any red flag law, period.” The lawmakers said they would not “violate” their oaths to the Constitution “for political expediency or to curry favor with special interests.”
“Your proposed special session, apparently calculated to pressure legislators to pass such a law, strikes us as an expensive, disruptive, futile, and counter-productive publicity stunt,” reads the letter. “The [Covenant School] tragedy would not have been averted by a ‘red flag’ law in any event. Your proposed special session is a solution in search of a problem.”
However, Democrats are “ready to get to work,” said Tennessee House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons in a statement.
“Tennesseans overwhelmingly support gun safety laws to better protect our children and communities and want legislative action,” Clemmons said. “Democrats agree and stand ready to get to work. As usual, the only thing standing in the way to public safety is the Republican supermajority.”
The GOP letter warns that a special session of left-wing activists will protest in Nashville and is in “service to the national woke mob that will descend on the Capitol.” All of it will “make the ‘Tennessee Three’ circus look like a dress rehearsal.” They claim “heavy security” will be needed to protect lawmakers from “unruly agitators.”
“There is no emergency, declared or otherwise, that justifies calling us back to work in August,” reads the letter. “The reason is a series of policy proposals that we, as a legislative body, deliberately — and prudently — chose to reject this session.”
The Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) is trashing Gov. Bill Lee’s push for what it calls a “red flag law,” saying he wants to pass an unconstitutional measure as an emotional reaction to the Covenant School shooting.
“Governor Lee called for the Legislature to react to the emotional response of some citizens after the Covenant murders and more particularly after the expulsion of two Democrat House members who demanded gun control,” TFA Executive Director John Harris said in a Wednesday statement. “Nothing in Bruen authorized knee-jerk emotional responses to murders or the calls of progressive Democrats and their mobs to justify government infringement of a right protected by the Constitution.”
The association contends Lee’s plan would violate the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. Justices found that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee the right to “keep” firearms in their homes and to “bear arms” in public, including the ability of “ordinary, law-abiding citizens” to carry firearms “for self-defense outside the home,” without infringement from state and federal governments.
I’ve talked to Republican members that say that the Tennessee Firearms Association is irrelevant.
– Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Nashville
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, based in part on the court’s decision in Bruen, reached an agreement with a California gun rights group that sued the state over its permit-less carry law and agreed to drop the gun-carry age to 18. Two bills to lower the age to 18 are hung up in committees, but the state Legislature remains a gun-friendly body overall.
Thus, Lee is avoiding the term “red flag law” while trying to garner the Legislature’s support for a new protective order that would prohibit access to weapons for people deemed to be a danger to themselves and others. He made the proposal two weeks after six people, including three 9-year-olds, died in a hail of bullets at The Covenant School in Green Hills.
The proposal, which the governor wants done this session, is meeting with mixed reaction from lawmakers and faces an uphill battle with only a couple of weeks left in the legislative session.
He also signed an executive order Tuesday to improve the background check system in Tennessee for firearms purchases.
Democratic state Rep. Bob Freeman, whose district contains The Covenant School, said Wednesday he hopes the governor’s plan can survive a fight from the gun lobby.
“I’ve talked to Republican members that say that the Tennessee Firearms Association is irrelevant,” Freeman said.
Yet the Republican House will be torn between following the governor’s lead and sticking up for their voters, many of whom base ballot decisions on support on the absolute right to bear arms. The gun lobby doesn’t spend heavily on legislative races, but pro-gun voters are a critical ingredient in Republican elections.
“People back home don’t like it. They don’t want their gun rights taken away from ’em, so we’re going to have to vet that very, very closely and I don’t know to what degree his executive order will play out on legislation when we go to pass something, because my people back home do not like it,” Rep. Dale Carr, a Sevierville Republican, said Tuesday.
Rank-and-file Republicans are dead set against a “red flag law” too, Carr said. Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, said, “Depriving someone of a constitutional right is a serious matter and any proposal to create an emergency mental health order of protection must be carefully considered, narrowly tailored and require rigorous due process.”
In his statement, Harris points out many Republican lawmakers campaigned as “strong Second Amendment supporters” and told constituents they would never back a “red flag law,” even signing pledges against voting for such laws.
“Now Republican Governor Lee calls on them to violate those promises and assurances and to pass a ‘Red Flag’ law,” Harris wrote.
Harris calls “red flag” laws “a scheme” that allows almost anyone to claim that a person at risk of harming themselves or others shouldn’t be able to possess a gun. He points out courts can direct law enforcement to seize a person’s weapons and to notify authorities that the person is banned from having guns — all without due process.
Republican leaders said Tuesday any type of protective order to prevent an unstable person from possessing weapons would have to include provisions guaranteeing due process.
But while some Republican leaders said they would be willing to work with the governor, Johnson, who usually carries the governor’s legislation, said changes to state law shouldn’t be made hastily in an emotional time.
“Depriving someone of a constitutional right is a serious matter and any proposal to create an emergency mental health order of protection must be carefully considered, narrowly tailored and require rigorous due process,” he said. He noted no bill has been drafted and he could not endorse or oppose a bill he hasn’t seen.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
