{"id":92646,"date":"2023-05-10T02:57:30","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T07:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=92646"},"modified":"2023-05-10T02:57:30","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T07:57:30","slug":"92646","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=92646","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

We must Doooooo Something!<\/strong><\/em>\u2122<\/p>\n

Tennessee Governor Announces Special Session for \u2018Red Flag\u2019 Style Gun Law<\/a><\/p>\n

The Tennessee General Assembly will officially reconvene this summer to consider legislation aimed at preventing future mass shootings.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Governor Bill Lee (R.)\u00a0formally announced<\/a>\u00a0a special legislative session starting August 21st. The goal of the session will be to \u201cstrengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights,\u201d according to Lee, and will likely involve debate over\u00a0his take<\/a>\u00a0on legislation aimed at temporarily taking guns from those determined to be a threat to themselves or others.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter speaking with members of the General Assembly, I am calling for a special session on August 21 to continue our important discussion about solutions to keep Tennessee communities safe and preserve the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThere is broad agreement that action is needed, and in the weeks ahead, we\u2019ll continue to listen to Tennesseans and pursue thoughtful, practical measures that strengthen the safety of Tennesseans, preserve Second Amendment rights, prioritize due process protections, support law enforcement and address mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement sets the stage for what is shaping up to be one of\u00a0<\/span>the most interesting debates in gun politics<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as a Republican-controlled state legislature debates a policy that has rarely seen adoption in red states. It comes weeks after a shooter murdered three students and three staff members at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee. While he remained non-specific in his announcement, Lee\u2019s \u201corder of protection\u201d proposal is expected to be a key feature of the special session.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Though he has avoided calling his proposal a \u201cred flag\u201d law, it shares many features with the policy currently on the books in 19 states and the District of Columbia. Lee has sought to craft his order of protection policy to address some of the common critiques of those laws. If the Republican Governor in one of the most gun-friendly states in the country can convince his Republican colleagues in the legislature to adopt the measure, it could set a template for other states who have been skeptical of red flag laws to follow.<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s announcement was met with cautious acceptance from Tennessee\u2019s Republican lawmakers, who currently hold supermajority control of the state assembly. Members of the Tennessee GOP previously issued\u00a0a statement<\/a>\u00a0calling Lee\u2019s proposal \u201ca non-starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur caucus remains focused on finding solutions that prevent dangerous individuals from harming the public,\u201d the Tennessee House Republican Caucus\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cWe are working on impactful legislation that protects Tennesseans & preserves the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, praised Lee\u2019s announcement. State Representative Caleb Hemmer (D.) called the special session an opportunity to pass \u201ccommon sense legislation around guns and mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready to get back to work to keep our community and children safe,\u201d he\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cI applaud the Governor for calling a special session on public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Governor, the proposed order of protection policy would be an expansion of the state\u2019s current system for domestic violence victims. State law already allows victims of domestic abuse and stalking to seek an order from a judge to remove firearms from their abuser. While nothing has been formally introduced, a\u00a0<\/span>13-page draft of Lee\u2019s proposal<\/span><\/a>\u00a0appears to expand that process to cover anyone who poses \u201ca substantial likelihood of serious harm by having a firearm or any ammunition\u201d under a \u201ctemporary mental health protection order.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Only members of law enforcement would be permitted to file a petition under the draft proposal, and petitions would have to be accompanied by a sworn statement providing specific evidence of the risk posed by an individual covered under the petition. Once a petition is filed, a court must notify the respondent of the petition within five days of its filing and must hold a hearing within ten days. The respondent would be given the option of court-appointed legal counsel and would be subject to a mandatory assessment for suicidal or homicidal ideation. Respondents would also be given the opportunity to present evidence and cross-examine any witness at the court hearing.<\/p>\n

After that hearing, the judge can order the subject of the petition to turn over their guns to the police or a third party who can legally possess guns within 48 hours.<\/p>\n

Orders would be granted under a \u201cclear and convincing\u201d evidentiary standard and would be valid for up to 180 days, with the option to extend only after an additional court hearing. Anyone who files false petitions for mental health orders would face charges of aggravated perjury and could also be subject to \u201ccompensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, and costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Significant hurdles remain for the legislation as activists on both sides of the gun issue have leveled criticism at Lee\u2019s plan. While the draft proposal contains many protections not included in other red flag laws on the books elsewhere, that has not been enough to assuage the concerns of some gun-rights advocates.<\/p>\n

The Firearms Policy Coalition was already critical of\u00a0Lee\u2019s initial call<\/a>\u00a0for a red flag-style proposal. The group said they were similarly displeased with Lee\u2019s formal announcement of a special session to consider the policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he says he wants to \u2018preserve your constitutional rights\u2019, he means he\u2019s looking for a creative way to justify trampling those rights,\u201d the group\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the Tennessee Firearms Association criticized Lee\u2019s proposal for not considering the constitutionality of any temporary gun confiscation order under the standard set by the Supreme Court in\u00a0New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo legislator has announced any historical precedent existing as of 1791 would be the basis for a Red Flag law in Tennessee,\u201d John Harris, the group\u2019s executive director,\u00a0said in a post on the bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harris also criticized the fact that the proposal would only address a person\u2019s access to firearms without actually treating the underlying mental health conditions creating the risk in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed, if Bill Lee\u2019s proposal were to be implemented, what would likely result is a mentally ill individual that is free to intermingle in public or access potential victims who is now perhaps both more angry (due to being assessed) and more intent on carrying out any planned course of action,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some gun-control advocates have\u00a0also criticized<\/a>\u00a0Lee\u2019s proposal for not going far enough. They say Tennessee\u2019s current gun dispossession law for domestic violence orders lacks an enforcement mechanism to account for who takes custody of relinquished weapons, which Lee\u2019s proposal does not address.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re going to allow third parties to have the firearms dispossessed to them, we need to know who that third party is,\u201d Becky Bullard, Programs Director for Nashville\u2019s Office of Family Safety,\u00a0told\u00a0ProPublica<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lee said his office would be meeting with legislators and stakeholders throughout the summer to further refine his proposal and discuss different policy options before the special session\u2019s August start date. He also welcomed members of the public to provide feedback on any potential legislation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We must Doooooo Something!\u2122 Tennessee Governor Announces Special Session for \u2018Red Flag\u2019 Style Gun Law The Tennessee General Assembly will officially reconvene this summer to consider legislation aimed at preventing future mass shootings. On Monday, Governor Bill Lee (R.)\u00a0formally announced\u00a0a special legislative session starting August 21st. The goal of the session will be to \u201cstrengthen … 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":[11,50,5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crap-for-brains","category-goobermint","category-politics","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92646","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=92646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92647,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92646\/revisions\/92647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}