Tennessee State Representative Chris Todd (R-Madison County) reflected back on this year’s session of the Tennessee General Assembly, calling it “productive” in terms of lawmakers passing a “balanced budget” and “protecting the liberties and freedoms” of Tennesseans.
“We’ve done a lot of good things for the state of Tennessee. I believe our citizens’ liberties and freedoms are protected more than they were when we began and that’s the main thing we’re supposed to do. We pass a balanced budget and then we are supposed to protect the liberties and freedoms of our citizens. I intend to continue doing that as long as the voters of Madison County send me back,” Todd (pictured above) said on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Todd said his biggest personal accomplishment this session was the passage of his bill that requires each local education agency and public charter school to provide students with age-appropriate and grade-appropriate instruction on firearm safety.
The bill, HB 2882, was signed by Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday and will take effect at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year.
“One of the things that seems to have gained a lot of attention in the public that I passed this year is a bill that we actually passed on the House floor in 2020 before we recessed for the COVID crisis and when we came back the Senate didn’t take it up. So it was dead and I brought it back. It was not my effort then but I thought it was a good idea and it requires education for firearm safety in our schools, which we already teach about fire safety and tornado safety and things like that…It’s gotten some national attention as a matter of fact. It’s maybe the first of its kind, I think, but it’s just basic training,” Todd explained.
“It doesn’t deal with live bombs at all. It strictly is that if you see a gun, don’t touch it, tell an adult. That basic type of information. That basic understanding from an early age that three different departments will decide all the way through the 12th grade every year. Just a few minutes every year. Just repetitive training that will hopefully be second nature to these children,” Todd added.
Todd also addressed tensions between lawmakers during this year’s legislative session, specifically the actions of Democrat State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville), who host Leahy described as a “divisive, angry, hate-filled character.”
“Jones seems to be the underlying common denominator in almost every conflict, whether it’s on the Democrat caucus side or between him and Republicans. He seems to be always in the mix of trying to get attention. He’s just starved for attention and it’s unfortunate… Jones just seems to hurl insults and make false accusations as he did this week and things like that. It’s not productive at all. When he talks, nobody listens. Even his own party. They don’t listen. There’s no reason to. There’s nothing there. It’s like listening to an empty bucket,” Todd said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “State Rep. Chris Todd” by State Rep. Chris Todd.
