{"id":91835,"date":"2023-04-13T09:17:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T14:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=91835"},"modified":"2023-04-13T09:17:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T14:17:29","slug":"91835","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=91835","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennessee gun lobby throws water on governor\u2019s protective order plan<\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Tennessee Firearms Association is trashing Gov. Bill Lee\u2019s push for what it calls a \u201cred flag law,\u201d saying he wants to pass an unconstitutional measure as an emotional reaction to the Covenant School shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor 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,\u201d Executive Director John Harris said in a Wednesday statement. \u201cNothing 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The association contends Lee\u2019s plan would violate the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. Justices found that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee the right to \u201ckeep\u201d firearms in their homes and to \u201cbear arms\u201d in public, including the ability of \u201cordinary, law-abiding citizens\u201d to carry firearms \u201cfor self-defense outside the home,\u201d without infringement from state and federal governments.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

I\u2019ve talked to Republican members that say that the Tennessee Firearms Association is irrelevant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u2013 Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Nashville<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, based in part on the court\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Thus, Lee is avoiding the term \u201cred flag law\u201d while trying to garner the Legislature\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The proposal, which he 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.<\/p>\n

The governor also signed an executive order Tuesday to improve the background check system in Tennessee for firearms purchases.<\/p>\n

Democratic state Rep. Bob Freeman, whose district contains The Covenant School, said Wednesday he hopes the governor\u2019s plan can survive a fight from the gun lobby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve talked to Republican members that say that the Tennessee Firearms Association is irrelevant,\u201d Freeman said.<\/p>\n

Yet Republican House will be torn between following the governor\u2019s 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\u2019t spend heavily on legislative races, but pro-gun voters are a critical ingredient in Republican elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople back home don\u2019t like it. They don\u2019t want their gun rights taken away from \u2019em, so we\u2019re going to have to vet that very, very closely and I don\u2019t 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,\u201d Rep Dale Carr, a Sevierville Republican, said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Rank-and-file Republicans are dead set against a \u201cred flag law\u201d too, Carr said.<\/p>\n

\""Depriving<\/a>
<\/i>\u00a0\u201cDepriving 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,\u201d Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin. (Photo: John Partipilo) <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his statement, Harris points out many Republican lawmakers campaigned as \u201cstrong Second Amendment supporters\u201d and told constituents they would never back a \u201cred flag law,\u201d even signing pledges against voting for such laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow Republican Governor Lee calls on them to violate those promises and assurances and to pass a \u2018Red Flag\u2019 law,\u201d Harris wrote.<\/p>\n

Harris calls \u201cred flag\u201d laws \u201ca scheme\u201d that allows almost anyone to claim that a person at risk of harming themselves or others shouldn\u2019t be able to possess a gun. He points out courts can direct law enforcement to seize a person\u2019s weapons and to notify authorities that\u00a0 the person is banned from having guns \u2014 all without due process.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But while some Republican leaders said they would be willing to work with the governor, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, who usually carries the governor\u2019s legislation, said changes to state law shouldn\u2019t be made hastily in an emotional time.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepriving 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,\u201d Johnson, a Franklin Republican, said. He noted no bill has been drafted and he could not endorse or oppose a bill he hasn\u2019t seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennessee gun lobby throws water on governor\u2019s protective order plan The\u00a0Tennessee Firearms Association is trashing Gov. Bill Lee\u2019s push for what it calls a \u201cred flag law,\u201d saying he wants to pass an unconstitutional measure as an emotional reaction to the Covenant School shooting. \u201cGovernor Lee called for the Legislature to react to the emotional … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goobermint","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91836,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91835\/revisions\/91836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}