The Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) and Gun Owners of America (GOA) on Monday announced their lawsuit against the City of Memphis after voters approved Ordinance 5908, a gun ordinance that requires permits to carry handguns, bans a series of guns determined “assault rifles,” and establishes extreme risk protection orders, or red flag laws, within the city limits.
In their November 13 lawsuit against Memphis, which requests immediate intervention to block the city’s ability to enforce the ordinance, the Second Amendment groups note the Memphis ordinance appears to violate Tennessee Code 39-17-1314(a), which specifically prohibits any Tennessee legislative body other than the General Assembly to regulate firearms or ammunition.
The lawsuit also accuses Memphis of violating as Tennessee Code 39-17-1329(b), a 2024 law that specifically blocks “all county, city, town, municipality, or metropolitan government” entities in Tennessee from establishing red flag laws.
It additionally claims one of the ordinance’s sponsors, Memphis City Councilman Jeff Warren, acknowledged the ordinance violated Tennessee’s laws, but supported the measure to “send a message” to state lawmakers.
“What we’re hoping to see is that the legislature will look and say, ‘One size doesn’t fit all with this. Our urban centers have different problems than our rural centers. Let’s tailor our laws to help our citizens,'” said Warren, according to the lawsuit.
They additionally claim the Memphis councilman acknowledged, “We’re hoping by letting the voters speak, our letters can see what we want and then we can get them to pass laws to allow this to become legal.”
In a press release, TFA explained, “The lawsuit and the request for the temporary restraining order assert that the actions of the City of Memphis in writing, proposing and then adopting these ordinances violate Tennessee Code Annotated § 39-17-1314(a) as well as a law adopted in 2024 which further underscored that local governments – like Memphis – have no authority to enact ‘red flag’ laws.'”
Before the ordinance was passed by voters on Election Day, Tennessee State House Speaker Cameron threatened to withhold the city’s share of state sales taxes if the referendum made it to the ballot.
“Local govt’s who want to be progressive & evade state laws will lose shared sales tax funding,” Sexton wrote in an August post to the social media platform X. “Subversive attempts to adopt sanctuary cities, allow boys in girl’s sports, limit 2A rights or other attempts will be met with stiff resistance. We hope they change course immediately.”
In response to the statement from Sexton, and after the Shelby County Board of Elections complied with efforts by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett to see the ordinance blocked from appearing on the ballot, the City of Memphis sued the commission and obtained a favorable ruling that allowed the ordinance to pass with the support of more than 80 percent of voters.
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “City of Memphis” by Luca Sartoni CC2.0.Â
