A report published Tuesday by WKRN TV failed to acknowledge the Tennessee 11 (TN 11), an activist group that seeks to pass red flag legislation and other gun restrictions this year in Tennessee, is funded by a Mexican-American billionaire based in New York.
The television station, which is owned by the publicly traded Nexstar Media Group, reported on the Tennessee 11 event held Tuesday at the Tennessee State Capitol, where the outlet reported, “The TN 11 said they’re calling for legislative solutions addressing gun violence and safety while upholding gun rights.” WKRN TV explained that “TN 11 also polled about 30,000 Tennesseans from all 95 counties” to determine priorities they would ask Tennessee lawmakers to address.
WKRN TV did not mention that TN 11 is promoted by Citizen Solutions, which in turn is a project of Starts With Us, a project of the Lubetzky Family Fund.
As The Tennessee Star first reported on Sunday, the Lubetzky Family Fund is the project of Daniel Lubetzky (pictured above), the “social entrepreneur” who created the Kind LLC snack company, then sold it to Mars Inc. when it was reportedly worth about $5 billion.
Tax documents confirm the Lubetzky Family Foundation has offices at 3 Times Square in New York. Lubetzky’s biography reveals he was born in Mexico City before immigrating to the United States.
In addition to his interest in pushing gun control legislation in Tennessee, the billionaire is also an inaugural board of directors member of the Anti-Defamation League, which revealed on its website that Lubetzky also received awards from the World Economic Forum, Skoll Foundation, Conscious Capitalism, and Hispanic Heritage Foundation.
WKRN TV also neglected to mention that a key policy position held by TN 11 calls for lawmakers to enact a red flag law in the state.
Specifically, TN 11 reached unanimous consent on a proposal to “[a]llow courts to temporarily remove someone’s firearms if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others based on certain criteria showing they are at risk of committing violence.”
Gun control measures repeatedly failed in Tennessee last year when red flag legislation gained the temporary support of Governor Bill Lee (R) following the Covenant School shooting in March.
No gun control legislation was passed during the Tennessee General Assembly’s regular session in 2023, nor after Lee called a special session. The governor did not back red flag legislation in the special session and recently indicated to the media that he does not intend to push for a red flag law again in 2024.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Daniel Lubetzky” by Daniel Lubetzky.
Let’s turn Tennessee into Mexico.