Tennessee U.S. Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) introduced the Teachers Empowered Against Classroom Harm (TEACH) Act on Friday.
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Governor Bill Lee called on the Tennessee Legislature to pass a Red Flag law – one that he proposed – before the 2023 Legislative session ended. The Legislators did not consider his proposal but instead they wrapped up business – they thought – and adjourned until January 2024. Governor Lee, apparently thinking of himself as perhaps the “master” of the Legislature, has now stated that he will call a special session to force the Legislature to take up his call for a Red Flag law.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Aaron Gulbransen in studio for another edition of Aaron’s Analysis.
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After Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) called for Reg Flag laws, bending to pressure from far-left activists, in the wake of the shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Republican legislators said they will not introduce legislation to that end.
“Any red flag law is a non-starter for House Republicans,” the House majority party said on Twitter. “Our caucus is focused on finding solutions that prevent dangerous individuals from harming the public and preserve the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. We have always been open to working with Governor Lee on measures that fit within that framework.”
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On April 20, 2023, Tennessee Firearms Association received a “leaked” draft of a Red Flag law which information indicates is likely being offered by Tennessee Democrats since it seeks to amend House Bill 1233 Senate Bill 1029 which has Democrat sponsors in the House and Senate. Of particular concern, however, is that House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby). Since a high ranking House Republican leader is a sponsor on the bill, it must be considered whether this is a second attempt by Governor Bill Lee to get a Red Flag law to the floor.
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Two notable recording artists have joined a chorus of calls for the state of Tennessee to implement stricter gun control measures.
“We’re Nashvillians. We’re also moms,” Sheryl Crow told News Channel 5. “And I think what happened at Covenant has touched everyone, including Gov. Lee on a very deep and personal level. We just want to see something that we can all agree on.”
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In yet another protest in favor of gun control, recently embattled State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) attempted to bring a child-sized casket into the Tennessee House Chamber, before he was forced to drop the prop.
“The rally made it inside the Capitol going through security,” News Channel 5’s Kelsey Gibbs reported. “Rep. Justin Jones and Bishop Barber are trying to enter the chamber with a casket. The sergeant of arms went to check and tells them they can’t bring the casket inside the House chamber.”
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The Southern Baptist Convention is now using its massive sway to call for gun control in Tennessee.
Brent Leatherwood, the Southern Baptist Convention’s president of the church’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), demanded gun control in a letter published by The Tennesseean.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) in studio to dispel rumors of the Tennessee State Senate passing red flag laws.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Firearms Associations John Harris in studio to discuss rumors of the rebranding of red flag laws in the state of Tennessee.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Firearms Associations John Harris in studio to explain the meaning of red flag laws and Tennessee leaders’ misinterpretation of ‘well-regulated’ as it pertains to the Second Amendment.
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A flower shop in Nashville is publicly bashing the Republican National Committee (RNC) after the RNC asked it to provide floral arrangements for an upcoming event.
In an Instagram post, FLWR Shop in Nashville explained that it would not to business with the RNC due to the RNC’s pro-Second Amendment stance.
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Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy said he would shut down a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that is “beyond repair” and expand Second Amendment rights if he is elected president.
The political outsider vying for the Republican Party’s nomination laid out his gun rights agenda in a speech Friday to the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Indianapolis.
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It was a tough start for the old Hoosier and presumptive presidential candidate in Indianapolis.
Former Vice President Mike Pence stepped on stage at the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action Leadership Forum Friday afternoon to a small chorus of boos.
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On April 11, 2023, Governor Bill Lee called for the Tennessee Legislature to respond to the public’s emotional response to the Covenant School murders by enacting a law to make sure mentally ill people do not have access to firearms. He did not use the term “Red Flag” but that is the correct label for the kind of law that Governor Lee described as a “new protective order”.
Tennessee’s Legislature has a super majority of Republicans. Many of those Republicans have campaigned as strong Second Amendment supporters and continue to claim that they are. Many of them have told their constituents that they would never support a “Red Flag” law. Some may have answered candidate surveys or signed pledges assuring the voters that they would never support a “Red Flag” law in Tennessee. Now Republican Governor Lee calls on them to violate those promises and assurances and to pass a “Red Flag” law.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s constitutional carry bill into law on Monday.
HB 543, co-sponsored by state Reps. Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, Chuck Brannan, R-Macclenny, and state Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, who filed a companion bill in the Senate, allows Floridians to carry concealed weapons without a government-issued permit. It also expands law enforcement and educational programs and safety requirements.
After the law goes into effect July 1, Florida will become the 26th state to enact a Constitutional Carry law.
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In a Monday press conference, Gov. Bill Lee (R) suggested that some people labeled as “threats” should not be able to own firearms.
“What I expect is that there will be an opportunity to look at legislation [from] around the country, at ways that we can in fact do that very thing, which is mak[ing] sure that those who are a threat to our people, to our children, do not have access to weapons, protecting the constitutional rights of Tennesseans at the same time,” said Lee.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Tennessee Star reporter TC Weber in studio to comment on the lack of students with different viewpoints on gun control in Metro Nashville Public Schools protest discussions.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the education reporter for The Tennessee Star, TC Weber in studio to discuss how Metro Nashville Public School officials organized 12,000 high school students in Monday’s gun violence walk-out.
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A federal judge ruled Friday that Minnesota’s policy of denying permits to carry to 18 to 20-year-olds is unconstitutional.
The case began with a June 2021 lawsuit filed by three gun-rights groups, including the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, on behalf of three adults under the age of 21.
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Following practically every mass public shooting, the gun control advocates call for “reasonable” responses to “gun violence”. One of the present favorite alleged solutions of the those who seek to ban guns in society is the incrementalism that includes the opportunity to leverage a tragedy by calling for “Red Flag” laws.
A “Red Flag” law is nothing more than a gun confiscation order. That is its failure as a solution to violence. But, that is the very reason why gun abolitionists proffer it at every opportunity.
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A bill currently before the state legislature, being referred to as “true constitutional carry,” is actively being opposed by representatives of Governor Bill Lee’s office, even though his constitutional carry legislation was supposedly passed into law in 2021.
In February 2020, Lee held a press conference in the old supreme court chambers in the state capitol, surrounded by more than 40 members of the Tennessee General Assembly, to announce that he would be introducing legislation supporting the God-given and constitutionally-protected Second Amendment rights of Tennesseans with a Constitutional Carry bill.
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A bill that would stop Ohio law enforcement officers from enforcing federal gun regulations that are more restrictive than state law is drawing opposition from country prosecutors, chiefs of police and mayors.
State Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, called the proposed legislation a response to federal regulations she said infringes on Second Amendment rights.
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Connecticut has filed a lawsuit against several gun manufacturers, accusing them of violating state law by selling components that are used to build untraceable ‘ghost’ guns.
The civil lawsuit, announced by Attorney General William Tong Tuesday, targets four out-of-state firearm companies accusing them of violating the state’s consumer protection laws, which carry fines of up to $5,000 per violation.
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Two more counties have joined the list of Second Amendment “sanctuaries” in Minnesota, expressing their opposition to several gun-control bills moving through the legislature.
The Itasca County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved its “Second Amendment Dedicated County” resolution at a Feb. 21 meeting.
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Two Republican state Representatives have introduced a bill that aims to reduce firearms regulations and expand Second Amendment rights in Ohio.
House Bill (HB) 51 known as the “Second Amendment Preservation Act” sponsored by state Representatives Mike Loychik (R-Bazetta) and Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) takes several steps to protect the Second Amendment by adding further protections to the right to bear arms, and removing federal firearms law references from the state firearms control law.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee attorney John Harris in studio to explain how the Bruen decision applies to the state of Tennessee’s gun laws.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the founder and president of the Tennessee Firearms Association, John Harris in studio to discuss what first prompted his interest in the Second Amendment.
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After the three public shootings over the last two weekends in California, Democrats are again clamoring for even more gun control laws. To California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the solution is to ban more places where people can carry permitted concealed handguns. Unfortunately, the proposal has nothing to do with stopping these attacks, and more gun-free zones only encourage these attacks. Other heavily Democratic states such as New York, New Jersey, and Maryland are making similar pushes.
Concealed handgun permit holders didn’t commit those or other mass public shootings. Permit holders are also extremely law-abiding, being convicted of firearms-related violations at 1/12th the rate of police officers.
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Gun rights advocates are seeking to block Connecticut from enforcing a new federal rule that reclassified certain weapons as banned firearms under the state’s assault weapons ban.
A lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by the Second Amendment Foundation on behalf of several gun owners, seeks a declaratory judgement that Connecticut’s laws banning the sale or possession of “assault weapons” violate the Second Amendment, and calls for a permanent injunction barring the state from enforcing the laws.
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A new federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) rule on pistols with stabllizing braces faces a Second Amendment lawsuit filed on behalf of disabled veterans.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed the complaint Tuesday in the U.S. Northern District of Texas Amarillo Division.
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The Biden administration’s newly released regulations regarding “pistol-stabilizing braces” will instantly turn tens of thousands of law-abiding Americans into felons and create a national rifle registry. But the Biden administration and the media exaggerate the costs and ignore the benefits these braces produce.
Few seem to realize that stabilizing braces for pistols were originally designed to allow wounded and disabled veterans who may have lost the use of part of their hand to hold handguns. They are essentially a strap attached to the gun. Disabled individuals are often viewed as easy targets by criminals, and stabilizers make it easier to defend themselves. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) originally approved pistol braces during the Obama administration.
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The Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) is looking for plaintiffs to take part in a possible lawsuit against the state of Tennessee pertaining to the state’s gun-free zones.
A lawsuit is being prepared for filing in state court against the State of Tennessee that will address gun-free zones and whether those zones violate the constitution, according to the TFA.
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Republican State Senator Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) has announced he’s running for U.S. Senate against Ohio Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in 2024.
“I am unapologetically committed to putting the needs of Ohio first and delivering results as our next U.S. Senator. With the courage of my convictions, clarity of purpose, and a resolute focus on the challenges and opportunities facing our beloved state, I am ready to lead,” Dolan said in a statement.
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The editorial board of a major New Jersey newspaper started the year off with an anti-Second Amendment screed, decrying the right to keep and bear arms as a “curse” perpetuated by a “fanatical” interpretation created by the Supreme Court in 2008.
Among other things, editors at the Newark-based Star-Ledger bemoaned that the Second Amendment keeps the nation from enacting “rational” gun control along the lines of Canada—which is a hair’s breadth away from banning all firearm sales—and called for readers to imagine the possibilities if the Supreme Court would just reinterpret the Constitution according to the justices’ personal perceptions of “reasonable” public policy.
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As of January 3, 2023, the Republicans were supposed to control the United States House of Representatives by a slim majority. On that date, many expected that the task of electing a new Speaker and moving forward with the business of “the people” in the House would start under Republican party control. But as of January 6, 2023, those elected to serve in the House have not selected a Speaker and so the House has not been organized nor undertaken regular operations. National news reports indicate that the presumptive Republican Speaker so far has fallen short in getting the required number of votes in part because approximately 20 Republicans who were elected in November have refused to vote for McCarty and no other individual has demonstrated enough votes to get the position.
One of the issues that is being discussed is whether any of those who have refused to support McCarthy in the 11 votes taken as of January 5th have broken a promise, perhaps a campaign promise, to do so. It is an active discussion over what was promised and whether there are any valid justifications for withholding support if a promise was made. Indeed, at least in Nashville, the talk radio shows are expending a great amount of time reviewing this issue because there is a Congressman-elect from Tennessee who is part of the story.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Firearms Association CEO, Attorney John Harris in studio to explain the Brewing decision and offer suggestions as to how the Tennessee General Assembly can protect the Second Amendment.
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Half of the states in the U.S. no longer require residents to hold a concealed carry permit to carry firearms in public after Alabama, Indiana, Georgia and Ohio passed laws in 2022 removing permit requirements.
On Monday, Alabama began enforcing its permitless carry law, becoming the 25th state to do so, while Indiana, Georgia and Ohio also passed laws this year allowing residents to concealed carry firearms without a permit. Over the last two years 10 states have moved to permitless carry, including Utah, Montana, Iowa, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas.
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Tennessee State Senator Becky Massey (R-Knoxville) filed a bill this week that would reimburse people for taking a first-time handgun safety course. The bill would reimburse people up to $30 for taking a handgun safety course in Tennessee. The reimbursements would be funded from fees collected by the state’s handgun carry permit application and processing costs.
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New Jersey’s state Senate narrowly passed a new concealed carry gun control legislation Monday, with one Democratic lawmaker joining Republicans in saying it is unconstitutional, according to NJ.com.
The bill would require gun owners who seek a concealed carry permit to purchase liability insurance and take training courses, while also increasing permit fees and restricting guns in “sensitive places” like schools, public parks, courthouses, bars and private property, according to the legislation. The bill received bipartisan criticism, with Republican state Sen. Michael Testa calling the bill “absolutely wrong” and Democratic state Sen. Nicholas Sacco saying it is unconstitutional and will face legal challenges, according to NJ.com.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Firearm Association founder attorney John Harris to the newsmaker line to explain the Second Amendment implications of the retitled constitutional carry law, Beeler v Skrmetti.
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After three football players were killed in a shooting at the University of Virginia and six people were killed in a shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake, gun groups are cautioning against efforts to impose stricter gun control measures.
On November 13, three UVA football players were killed after a man allegedly opened fire in a bus after returning to the university from a class trip. A little more than a week later, six people were killed in a Walmart in Chesapeake after a man allegedly opened fire because of grievances against some Walmart employees.
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Ohio Senator Matt Huffman, (R-Lima) will once again serve as President of the Ohio Senate for the 135th General Assembly after a unanimous vote Tuesday, as reported by a release from the Senate.
Huffman was first elected to the Ohio Senate in 2016. He was re-elected to a second term in 2020 when he previously served as Senate President during the 134th General Assembly and prior to that as Majority Floor Leader. This follows his serving four terms in the Ohio House of Representatives building up to his election as Speaker Pro Tempore.
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A Tennessee appellate court said a public housing complex in Columbia must uphold the Second Amendment rights of its tenants.
“As a threshold matter, we recognize that Columbia Housing is a government entity acting as a landlord of the Creekside Acres residences,” Appellate Judge Frank Clement Jr. wrote in a Thursday opinion. “For this reason, the actions of Columbia Housing and the policies of Creekside Acres must conform to the [U.S.] Constitution.”
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Mark Walters creator of Armed American Radio and Armed American News to discuss the recent ruling by a New York federal judge to stop key components of the state’s gun laws that violated the Second Amendment.
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Hundreds of Virginians have had their guns confiscated from them through red-flag laws since those rules went into effect more than two years ago, according to data in the Virginia Firearms Transaction Center.
Red-flag laws allow police to seize firearms from a person if a judge deems him or her to be a threat to himself or others, even if that person has not been convicted of a crime, charged with a crime or even accused of a crime. The laws passed the General Assembly when Democrats had control of both chambers and were signed by former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. The legislation received staunch opposition from the Republican minority at the time.
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After last week’s news that American Express, Mastercard and Visa, plan to keep lists of those who purchase weapons using their credit card services, Tennessee’s Attorney General is leading a coalition of 24 of his peers from various states in opposition of that plan.
“Giant financial companies must not use their combined market power to circumvent our
representative democracy,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. “As Attorney
General, I protect the people of Tennessee from corporate collusion that threatens to undermine their constitutional rights. Working together with my colleagues from other states, we will marshal the full scope of our lawful authority to stop this abuse.”
The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF), the NRA’s political action committee, has endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for reelection.
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After President Joe Biden again tacitly threatened to use military grade weapons against gun-owning civilians, Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Arizona Blake Masters and Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake are firing back.
“This is the logic of an authoritarian. ‘We have bombs and missiles, you wouldn’t stand a chance. Therefore surrender your puny guns.’ No,” said Masters in a Tweet.
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Dave Kopp, the longtime lobbyist and founding president of the Arizona Citizens Defense League (AzCDL), a Second Amendment organization in Arizona, passed away at age 56.
Kopp fought cancer for 12 years but succumbed to the illness on August 24. Several people in the Arizona gun industry told The Arizona Sun Times Kopp was responsible for transforming Arizona into the top-ranked state for Second Amendment-friendly laws.
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